Solution: Similar String Groups
Explore how to use the Union Find data structure to identify and count groups of similar strings. Understand the similarity condition based on character swaps and connect strings through unions to find all connectivity groups. This lesson highlights the algorithm design, implementation, and time-space complexity analysis for effective coding interview solutions.
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Statement
Two strings x and y are considered similar if they are either exactly the same or can be made identical by swapping at most two different characters in string x.
We define a similarity group as a set of strings where each string is similar to at least one other string in the group. A string doesn't need to be directly similar to every other string in the group — it just needs to be connected to them through a chain of similarities.
Given a list of strings strs, where each string is an anagram of the others, your task is to determine how many such similarity groups exist in the list.
Constraints:
strs.lengthstrs[i].lengthstrs[i]consists of lowercase letters only. ...