Melvin, The 1HP Intern

Identifying design patterns in game damage-calculation code

This is a medium-difficulty C++ question that tests whether you can recognize a structural design pattern in real production code. Rather than asking you to implement a pattern from scratch, it presents a concrete scenario—a layered damage-processing pipeline in a game engine—and asks you to identify which of the Gang of Four patterns your colleague has applied.

The question rewards familiarity with how classic patterns manifest in idiomatic code. You'll need to understand the intent behind each pattern, recognize the sequence of checks and transformations being performed, and match that structure to the pattern name. Game development is a common domain where these patterns naturally emerge, especially in systems that need to compose behavior flexibly.

• Structural patterns vs. behavioral patterns
• Chaining vs. composition vs. decoration
• Separation of concerns in request processing