STRING MANIPULATION - Interview Point Of view
Contents
1. Reverse a String ........................................................................................................ 2
2. Check if a String is a Palindrome............................................................................. 2
3. Remove Duplicates from a String ............................................................................ 2
4. Find the First Non-Repeating Character ................................................................. 3
5. Count the Occurrences of Each Character ............................................................. 3
6. Reverse Words in a Sentence .................................................................................. 3
7. Check if Two Strings are Anagrams ........................................................................ 4
8. Find the Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters .................................. 4
9. Convert a String to an Integer (atoi Implementation) ............................................. 5
10. Compress a String (Run-Length Encoding) .......................................................... 5
11. Find the Most Frequent Character ......................................................................... 6
12. Find All Substrings of a Given String .................................................................... 6
13. Check if a String is a Rotation of Another String ................................................. 7
14. Remove All White Spaces from a String ............................................................... 7
15. Check if a String is a Valid Shuffle of Two Strings ............................................... 7
16. Convert a String to Title Case ................................................................................ 8
17. Find the Longest Common Prefix .......................................................................... 8
18. Convert a String to a Character Array ................................................................... 8
19. Replace Spaces with %20 (URL Encoding) ........................................................... 9
20. Convert a Sentence into an Acronym .................................................................... 9
21. Check if a String Contains Only Digits .................................................................. 9
22. Find the Number of Words in a String ................................................................... 9
23. Remove a Given Character from a String ............................................................. 9
24. Find the Shortest Word in a String ...................................................................... 10
25. Find the Longest Palindromic Substring ............................................................ 10
1. Reverse a String
Efficient Solution: Use StringBuilder (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? StringBuilder’s reverse() method is optimized and avoids extra loops.
2. Check if a String is a Palindrome
Efficient Solution: Two-pointer approach (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Avoids extra space used by recursion or string builders.
3. Remove Duplicates from a String
Efficient Solution: Use a HashSet (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Uses a HashSet for O(1) lookups.
4. Find the First Non-Repeating Character
Efficient Solution: Use a frequency map (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Only two passes over the string, avoiding nested loops
5. Count the Occurrences of Each Character
Efficient Solution: Use an array (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Uses a single pass and avoids sorting.
6. Reverse Words in a Sentence
Efficient Solution: Use split() and StringBuilder (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Splitting and reversing words directly is faster than handling each character.
7. Check if Two Strings are Anagrams
Efficient Solution: Use frequency counting (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Avoids sorting (O(n log n)), making it O(n) time complexity.
8. Find the Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
Efficient Solution: Sliding window technique (O(n) time, O(min(n, alphabet)) space)
Why? Uses a single pass and a HashMap to track character positions efficiently.
9. Convert a String to an Integer (atoi Implementation)
Efficient Solution: Manual parsing (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Efficient handling of overflow and signs.
10. Compress a String (Run-Length Encoding)
Efficient Solution: Two-pointer approach (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Uses O(n) time with a single pass.
11. Find the Most Frequent Character
Efficient Solution: Use a frequency array (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Avoids sorting and maps, making it O(n).
12. Find All Substrings of a Given String
Efficient Solution: Generate substrings using two loops (O(n²) time, O(1) space)
Why? Uses substring efficiently, avoiding redundant operations.
13. Check if a String is a Rotation of Another String
Efficient Solution: Use concatenation (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Eliminates the need for nested loops.
14. Remove All White Spaces from a String
Efficient Solution: Use replaceAll() (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Uses regex to remove all spaces in a single pass.
15. Check if a String is a Valid Shuffle of Two Strings
Efficient Solution: Sorting + Two-Pointer (O(n log n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Sorting makes comparison simpler.
16. Convert a String to Title Case
Efficient Solution: Use split() and StringBuilder (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Processes words in a single pass.
17. Find the Longest Common Prefix
Efficient Solution: Sort and compare first & last strings (O(n log n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Sorting helps quickly find the common prefix.
18. Convert a String to a Character Array
Efficient Solution: Use toCharArray() (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Most efficient way in Java.
19. Replace Spaces with %20 (URL Encoding)
Efficient Solution: Use replace() (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Avoids manual iteration.
20. Convert a Sentence into an Acronym
Efficient Solution: Use split() and StringBuilder (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Processes words efficiently.
21. Check if a String Contains Only Digits
Efficient Solution: Use regex (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? Single regex check avoids looping.
22. Find the Number of Words in a String
Efficient Solution: Use split() (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Uses regex to efficiently count words.
23. Remove a Given Character from a String
Efficient Solution: Use replace() (O(n) time, O(1) space)
Why? More optimized than manually iterating.
24. Find the Shortest Word in a String
Efficient Solution: Use split() and min() (O(n) time, O(n) space)
Why? Uses Java Streams for concise logic.
25. Find the Longest Palindromic Substring
Efficient Solution: Expand Around Center (O(n²) time, O(1) space)
Why? Faster than brute force.
