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DIY: Read N Characters Given Read4 II — Call Multiple Times

Explore how to implement a read function that retrieves n characters from a file by repeatedly using the read4 API, which reads four characters at a time. Understand how to manage multiple calls to the function while dealing with data buffering and state persistence. This lesson helps you develop skills for handling file read operations constrained by API limitations, a common challenge in coding interviews.

Problem statement

Suppose that you can only read a given file using a specific API method called read4. You will implement the read method to read n characters from the file. This read method can be called multiple times.

read4() API:

The read4() API reads the next four consecutive characters from the file, until the file no longer has any characters that need to be read. After reading, the read4() method writes the characters into the array named buff.

The read4() method uses its own file pointer to keep ...