Code Room
CodingEasycod-g866
Subject ParsingLevel Entry–Mid~20 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

Given an absolute Unix-style file path, return its canonical form. In the path, `.` means the current directory, `..` means the parent directory (and is a no-op at the root), and multiple consecutive slashes are treated as a single slash. The canonical path must start with a single `/`, must not have a trailing slash (except for the root `/`), and must not contain any `.` or `..` components or empty segments.

Implement
simplify_path(path: str) → str
Examples
in["/home//foo/"]out"/home/foo"
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.