Code RoomOne edit distance
MediumPrep Room Coding #1186

One edit distance

CodingAlgorithms & data structuresEntry–Mid~18 min

Given two strings a and b, return True iff they are exactly one edit distance apart. One edit is a single character insert, delete, or replace. Strings that are identical are NOT one edit apart. 0 <= len(a), len(b) <= 100000, lowercase letters. Example: a='ab', b='acb' -> True (insert 'c').

Implement
is_one_edit_distance(a: str, b: str) → bool
Examples
in["ab","acb"]outtrue
What 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 18 min
InputExpectedGot
["ab","acb"]truenot run yetsample