One edit apart
Given two strings a and b, return True if they are at most one edit apart, where an edit is inserting, deleting, or replacing a single character (zero edits, i.e. equal strings, also counts as True). For example "pale" and "ple" are one delete apart, and "pale" and "bale" are one replace apart, but "pale" and "bake" need two edits. Solve in O(len(a)+len(b)) time without building a full DP table.
Implement
is_one_edit(a: str, b: str) → boolExamples
in
["pale","ple"]outtrueWhat a strong answer looks like
State your approach and its time/space complexity out loud before you optimize. Handle the edge cases (empty input, duplicates, overflow), and say why you chose this over the brute force. Green tests are the floor, not the grade.
0:00 of about 20 min
solution.py
InputExpectedGot
["pale","ple"]truenot run yetsample