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Yes, this problem reflects real-world system design concepts and data structure usage, making it a common interview question in large tech companies. It tests understanding of trees, hash maps, and object-oriented design.
A Trie-like tree structure combined with hash maps works best. Each directory node stores its children in a hash map, enabling fast access and creation of subdirectories or files while preserving the hierarchical structure.
The optimal approach is to represent the file system as a tree similar to a Trie. Each node represents a directory or file and stores children using a hash map for quick lookups. Path components are processed sequentially, making traversal efficient.
The ls operation requires returning directory contents in lexicographical order. Since children are typically stored in an unordered hash map for fast access, the results must be sorted before returning.