javascriptnode.jsconcurrencycallbacksingle-threaded

Node JS Concurrency Handling Coding Interview Question


I attended a NodeJS coding interview. Got below code which executes asynchronously from different browsers(to be assumed). Our solution needs to lock the execution of function if the update by ID is same but called from different place (say browser). And then release the lock for next request's execution.

Here no changes to be made for the mentioned code below.

async function update(id, data) {
    console.log(`start --> id:${id}, data:${data}`);
    await randomDelay(); //update is happening here
    console.log(`end --> id:${id}, data:${data}`);
}

//=============================================================================
//================= Don't change anything below ===============================
//=============================================================================

//---- update() is getting called from many places ----
update(1, "browser 1");
update(1, "browser 2");

//========================= Utility functions ===================================
//========================= Don't change any here================================

async function sleep(ms) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(() => resolve(), ms);
    });
}

async function randomDelay() {
    const randomTime = Math.round(Math.random() * 1000);
    return sleep(randomTime);
}

This will give an output like below.

start --> id:1, data:browser 1
start --> id:1, data:browser 2
end --> id:1, data:browser 1
end --> id:1, data:browser 2

The expected answer is

start --> id:1, data:browser 1
end --> id:1, data:browser 1
start --> id:1, data:browser 2
end --> id:1, data:browser 2

Please note the comments in code "Don't change anything below". What would be the possible solution?


Solution

  • You could use a hash table of queues keyed by ID so only jobs with the same ID run consecutively, otherwise they run concurrently.

    let hash = {};
    class Queue {
      constructor() {
        this.isBusy = false;
        this.jobs = [];
      }
    
      push(jobFn) {
        return new Promise((resolve) => {
          this.jobs.push({
            jobFn,
            resolve
          });
          this.next();
        });
      }
    
      next() {
        if (this.isBusy || this.jobs.length === 0) return;
        this.isBusy = true;
        let currJob = this.jobs.shift();
        return currJob.jobFn().then((data) => {
          currJob.resolve(data);
          this.isBusy = false;
          this.next();
        });
      }
    }
    
    async function update(id, data) {
      const updateFn = async () => {
        console.log(`start --> id:${id}, data:${data}`);
        await randomDelay(); //update is happening here
        console.log(`end --> id:${id}, data:${data}`);
      };
      if (id in hash) {
        hash[id].push(updateFn);
      } else {
        hash[id] = new Queue(updateFn);
        hash[id].push(updateFn);
      }
    }
    
    //=============================================================================
    //================= Don't change anything below ===============================
    //=============================================================================
    
    //---- update() is getting called from many places ----
    update(1, "browser 1");
    update(1, "browser 2");
    update(2, "browser 1");
    update(2, "browser 2");
    update(1, "browser 3");
    update(1, "browser 4");
    
    //========================= Utility functions ===================================
    //========================= Don't change any here================================
    
    async function sleep(ms) {
      return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(() => resolve(), ms);
      });
    }
    
    async function randomDelay() {
      const randomTime = Math.round(Math.random() * 1000);
      return sleep(randomTime);
    }