Solution: Similar String Groups
Explore how to apply the Union Find data structure to solve the Similar String Groups problem. Learn to determine string similarity by checking character swaps, group strings based on these connections, and analyze the algorithm's time and space complexity for efficient 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. ...