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Print directory tree with indentation

UberSoftware Engineer · Technical Screen
MediumSoftware EngineerTechnical ScreenCoding & Algorithms

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This question evaluates proficiency with representing and traversing hierarchical directory trees and producing depth-based formatted output, testing concepts such as tree traversal, recursion or iterative depth tracking, and string formatting for indentation.

You are given a root directory of a filesystem represented as a tree. Each node is either a directory (can have children) or a file (no children). Print the directory structure starting from the root, using indentation to show depth.

Output format

  • Print one node per line.
  • The root is printed with no indentation.
  • For each depth level below the root, prefix the name with an indentation marker (for example: ⟶ ). Repeating the marker indicates deeper nesting.

Example formatting (depth shown by repeated markers):

dir
⟶ subdir1
⟶ ⟶ file1.ext
⟶ ⟶ subsubdir1
⟶ subdir2
⟶ ⟶ subsubdir2
⟶ ⟶ ⟶ file2.ext

Requirements / assumptions

  • You may assume the input is already a tree (no cycles).
  • The children of a directory should be printed in the order they are provided.

Task

Implement a function that, given the root node, prints (or returns as a list of strings) the directory tree in the required format.