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Lookup Tables & Precomputation

Trade memory for time: precompute expensive results into a table and replace an O(k) runtime computation with an O(1) array read, the space-time tradeoff that powers DSP, trig, and CRC.

20 min read

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5 interview questions on this topic

Each one opens a full worked answer.

What is a lookup table and what tradeoff does it make?Should a lookup table live in RAM or flash, and how do you control that?The domain is too large to tabulate every input. What do you do?When is a lookup table the wrong choice?What's a CRC table and why is it faster than computing CRC directly?

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