Epic Skills Assessment Epic Skills Assessment Algorithmic Problem Solving Questions and Answers 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In the context of Epic systems, which algorithmic approach is most efficient for searching a sorted list of patient records by MRN?
- Linear search
- Binary search (Correct answer)
- Breadth-first search
- Depth-first search
Correct answer: Binary search
Binary search operates in O(log n) time on sorted data, making it the optimal choice for searching sorted patient records by MRN.
Question 2: When designing an algorithm to detect duplicate medication orders in Epic, what is the primary advantage of using a hash set over a sorted array?
- Lower memory usage
- O(1) average lookup time (Correct answer)
- Maintains insertion order
- Supports range queries
Correct answer: O(1) average lookup time
A hash set provides O(1) average-case lookup time for detecting duplicates, compared to O(log n) for a sorted array.
Question 3: An Epic report must process a hierarchical department structure to calculate aggregate patient volumes. Which traversal strategy processes all child departments before moving to sibling departments?
- Breadth-first traversal
- Depth-first traversal (Correct answer)
- Level-order traversal
- Inorder traversal
Correct answer: Depth-first traversal
Depth-first traversal fully explores each branch of the hierarchy before backtracking to process sibling nodes.
Question 4: When implementing a scheduling algorithm in Epic that must assign appointments to minimize total patient wait time, which algorithmic paradigm is most appropriate?
- Brute force enumeration
- Greedy algorithm with shortest job first (Correct answer)
- Random assignment
- Last-come first-served
Correct answer: Greedy algorithm with shortest job first
A greedy approach using shortest job first minimizes average wait time by prioritizing shorter appointments.
Question 5: An algorithm needs to find the shortest referral path between two providers in Epic's provider network. Which algorithm is best suited if all referral connections have equal weight?
- Dijkstra's algorithm
- Breadth-first search (Correct answer)
- Bellman-Ford algorithm
- Floyd-Warshall algorithm
Correct answer: Breadth-first search
BFS finds the shortest path in an unweighted graph and is more efficient than Dijkstra's when all edges have equal weight.
Question 6: When an Epic algorithm must repeatedly find the highest-priority patient in an emergency department queue, which data structure provides the best performance for both insertion and extraction?
- Unsorted linked list
- Sorted array
- Binary heap (Correct answer)
- Hash table
Correct answer: Binary heap
A binary heap supports both insertion and extract-max operations in O(log n) time, ideal for a priority queue.
Epic Skills Assessment Epic Skills Assessment Algorithmic Problem Solving Questions and Answers 2
In the context of Epic systems, which algorithmic approach is most efficient for searching a sorted list of patient records by MRN?