HardDpAI interview only
Edit Distance
Asked atgoogleamazonmetamicrosoftbloomberglinkedinuber
01 · Problem
Given two strings word1 and word2, return the minimum number of operations required to convert word1 to word2.
You have the following three operations permitted on a word:
- Insert a character
- Delete a character
- Replace a character
02 · Examples
Example 01
Input
word1 = "horse", word2 = "ros"
Output
3
horse -> rorse (replace 'h' with 'r') -> rose (remove second 'r') -> ros (remove 'e'). Three operations total.
Example 02
Input
word1 = "intention", word2 = "execution"
Output
5
Five operations: remove 't', replace 'i' with 'e', replace first 'n' with 'x', replace second 'n' with 'c', insert 'u'.
03 · Constraints
- 010 <= word1.length, word2.length <= 500
- 02word1 and word2 consist of lowercase English letters
04 · Optimal complexity
- Time
- O(m * n)
- Space
- O(m * n)
05 · Two ways to work on it
Practice it alone or rehearse it as an interview.
Practice Mode gives you an editor and test runs, nothing else. AI Interview Mode puts a voice interviewer on the other side, adds a clock, and ends with a scored summary of the round.