Character classes

Identifying design patterns in character-class systems

This is a medium-difficulty question that tests your ability to recognize structural design patterns in real code. It's the kind of question quant and game-systems teams ask to gauge whether you understand how to organize class hierarchies and responsibilities—skills that transfer directly to financial systems with similar polymorphic constraints.

The scenario involves characters with specialized weapon types who can nevertheless train to use any weapon. The key is recognizing which Gang of Four pattern solves the problem of decoupling an object's core type from its variable capabilities. Strong candidates identify the pattern by reasoning about how responsibilities are distributed: what stays fixed on the character, and what becomes flexible and composable.

• Inheritance vs. composition trade-offs
• Separation of concerns in object design
• How patterns enable runtime flexibility without class explosion