Reflecting on test-driven attempt at solving an old interview problem.

In earlier blog posts, I documented my process for building a test-driven solution to an old interview problem. The test files and matching production code files are shown below.

Before attempting to solve this problem, I had been really struggling to learn TDD for a while. I wasn't sure if I'd get very far trying to test-drive the following code but was actually pleasantly surprised. Something clicked with TDD a bit more. I could see how it can help drive a design.

The solution below is incomplete. I was able to test-drive all of the individual pieces that make up the solution. However, I am missing some object-oriented design skills which meant that I wasn't sure how to make the pieces all work together as collaborating objects without calling them in a procedural way.

To get better, it could help to learn more about design patterns to get more exposure to object-oriented style solutions. So close to being able to do this all properly though, just got to keep at it!

spec/tetris_game_spec.rb

require_relative '../lib/tetris_game.rb'
require_relative '../lib/block.rb'

describe 'TetrisGame should:' do

  it '- Have a block capacity.' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 1
    expect(tetris.block_capacity).to eql(1)
  end
  it '- Not have a block capacity less than 1.' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new -1
    expect(tetris.block_capacity).to eql(nil)
  end
  it '- Have a starting tile' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new
    expect(tetris.starting_tile).to eql(1)
  end
  it '- Confirm room for more blocks.' do
    [3, 6, 12, 34, 3029, 199].each do |num|
      tetris = TetrisGame.new 3500
      expect(tetris.is_there_room_for_this(Block.new num)).to eql(true)
    end
  end
  it '- Deny room for more blocks.' do
    [33, 24, 43, 92, 103].each do |num|
      tetris = TetrisGame.new 1
      expect(tetris.is_there_room_for_this(Block.new num)).to eql(false)
    end
  end
  it '- Reduce block capacity when a block is added.' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 1
    tetris.add_block(Block.new 1)
    expect(tetris.block_capacity).to eql(0)
  end
  it '- Add blocks unless capacity is reached.' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 20
    block_sizes = [1, 2, 5, 15, 200, 30, 9, 19, 2, 1]

    block_sizes.each do |num|
      tetris.add_block(Block.new num)
    end
    expect(tetris.block_capacity).to eql(0)
  end
  it '- Show blocks added to the game.' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 20
    3.times { tetris.add_block(Block.new 1) }
    expect(tetris.blocks.length).to eql(3)
    expect(tetris.blocks[0].shape).to eql("Block")
  end
  it '- Show leftover blocks that wont fit.' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 20
    5.times { tetris.add_block(Block.new 10) }
    expect(tetris.leftover_blocks.length).to eql(3)
  end
  it '- Show position, size and shape of each block' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 10
    tetris.add_block(Block.new 2)
    tetris.add_block(Block.new 4)
    expect(tetris.describe(tetris.blocks)).to eql(['1-2: Block 2','2-5: Block 4'])
  end
  it '- Change block size 3 to "golden"' do
    tetris = TetrisGame.new 10
    tetris.add_block(Block.new 3)
    tetris.add_block(Block.new 2)
    expect(tetris.describe(tetris.blocks)).to eql(['1-3: Block golden', '3-4: Block 2'])
  end
end

spec/block_spec.rb

tetris_game_spec.rb                                           74,1           Bot
require_relative '../lib/block.rb'

describe 'Block should:' do
  it '- Be a specific size.' do
    [1,2,3,5,10,200,36,42,19].each do |num|
      block = Block.new num
      expect(block.size).to eql(num)
    end
  end
  it '- Not be smaller than a size 1.' do
    block = Block.new -2
    expect(block.size).to eql(nil)
  end
  it '- Have a shape.' do
    block = Block.new
    expect(block.shape).to eql('Block')
  end
  it '- Display information about itself.' do
    block = Block.new 1
    expect(block.display_info_about_itself).to eql('1 Block')
  end

end

lib/tetris_game.rb

class TetrisGame
  attr_reader :block_capacity, :blocks, :leftover_blocks, :starting_tile

  def initialize(block_capacity = 0, starting_tile = 1)
    @starting_tile = starting_tile
    @blocks = []
    @leftover_blocks = []
    if block_capacity > 0
      @block_capacity = block_capacity
    end
  end

  def is_there_room_for_this(block)
    block.size <= @block_capacity
  end

  def add_block(block)
    if is_there_room_for_this(block)
      @block_capacity = @block_capacity - block.size
      @blocks << block
    else
      @leftover_blocks << block
    end
  end

  def describe(blocks)
    blocks = []
    @blocks.each do |block|
        blocks << "#{@starting_tile}-#{@starting_tile + block.size - 1}: #{block.shape} #{block_size_formatter(block.size)}"
        @starting_tile += block.size - 1
    end
    blocks
  end

  def block_size_formatter(size)
    if size == 3
      "golden"
    else
      size
    end
  end

end

lib/block.rb

class Block

  attr_reader :size, :shape

  def initialize(size = 0, shape = 'Block')
    if size > 0
      @size = size
    end
    @shape = shape
  end

  def display_info_about_itself
    "#{@size} #{@shape}"
  end

end