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Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns in C++

Solution: Bulls and Cows

Explore how to implement a Bulls and Cows number guessing game solution using hash maps in C++. Learn to identify bulls (digits in correct positions) and cows (correct digits in wrong positions) with a single-pass approach, improving your problem-solving skills for coding interviews.

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Statement

You are playing a number guessing game called “Bulls and Cows” with a friend.

You write down a secret number, and your friend tries to guess it. After each guess, you provide a hint based on the following:

  • Bulls: The number of digits that are in the correct position in the guess.

  • Cows: The number of digits that are in both the secret and the guess but in different positions. (These are non-bull digits that could become bulls if rearranged.)

Your task is to return a hint for the guess, formatted as “xAyB”, where:

  • x is the number of bulls.

  • y is the number of cows.

Note: Both the secret number and the guess may contain duplicate digits.

Constraints:

  • 1<=1 <= secret.length, guess.length ...