Code Room
CodingMediumcod-g818
Subject Edit distanceLevel Entry–Mid~20 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

Given two lowercase strings a and b, determine whether they are at most one edit apart, where an edit is inserting a character, deleting a character, or replacing a single character. Identical strings count as zero edits (return true). Return true iff they differ by zero or one edit. Lengths up to a few thousand.

Implement
one_edit_away(a: str, b: str) → bool
Examples
in["pale","ple"]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.

Vibe coding: describe the solution in plain language (or narrate it) and the coach grades your approach. Generating runnable code from your description is coming next.

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.