Epic Skills Assessment Epic Skills Assessment Algorithmic Problem Solving Questions and Answers 3

Question 1

An Epic integration engine must match incoming HL7 messages to patient records using fuzzy string matching. Which algorithm is commonly used to measure the edit distance between two patient names?

Accepted Answer

Levenshtein distance algorithm

Answer

Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm

Answer

Boyer-Moore algorithm

Answer

Rabin-Karp algorithm

Question 2

When optimizing an Epic report that joins multiple large datasets, which algorithmic concept explains why breaking the problem into smaller sorted subsets before merging improves performance?

Accepted Answer

Divide and conquer

Answer

Dynamic programming

Answer

Backtracking

Answer

Branch and bound

Question 3

In Epic's Best Practice Alert system, an algorithm must evaluate multiple clinical rules against patient data in real time. What is the time complexity concern when rules have overlapping conditions?

Accepted Answer

O(n * m) where n is rules and m is conditions per rule

Answer

O(1) constant time regardless of rules

Answer

O(n) where n is the number of rules only

Answer

O(log n) with binary rule indexing

Question 4

An algorithm must detect circular referral patterns in Epic where Provider A refers to B, B refers to C, and C refers back to A. Which technique is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Cycle detection using DFS

Answer

Topological sorting

Answer

Linear regression

Answer

Binary search tree traversal

Question 5

When building a predictive algorithm in Epic that must consider the optimal subset of clinical features for patient risk scoring, which approach avoids evaluating all possible feature combinations?

Accepted Answer

Greedy feature selection

Answer

Exhaustive search

Answer

Random feature sampling only

Answer

Manual expert selection only

Question 6

An Epic algorithm processes a stream of lab results and must maintain a running median for trend analysis. Which combination of data structures most efficiently supports this?

Accepted Answer

Two heaps: a max-heap and a min-heap

Answer

Single sorted array with binary insertion

Answer

A single queue with periodic sorting

Answer

A balanced BST rebuilt after each insertion