Detect anagram in matrix
Last updated: April 5, 2026
Quick Overview
Given a matrix of characters, write a function to detect all occurrences of anagrams of a given target string within the matrix. The function should return the starting coordinates of each found anagram in the form of a list of tuples. An anagram is defined as a rearrangement of the letters of the target string.
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Given a matrix of characters, write a function to detect all occurrences of anagrams of a given target string within the matrix. The function should return the starting coordinates of each found anagram in the form of a list of tuples. An anagram is defined as a rearrangement of the letters of the target string.
This coding problem is frequently asked during Phone Screen at LinkedIn. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. LinkedIn expects candidates to write production-quality code, not just solve the puzzle.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Identify the correct data structure and algorithm for the problem
- Write clean, bug-free code with proper variable naming
- Analyze time and space complexity correctly
- Handle basic edge cases (empty input, single element)
- Communicate your thought process while coding
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Clarify input constraints and edge cases before writing code.
- Walk through your approach verbally and confirm with the interviewer before coding.
- Start with a brute force solution, then optimize. Mention time and space complexity.
- Test your solution with examples, including edge cases like empty input or duplicates.
- Consider common patterns: sliding window, two pointers, hash map, BFS/DFS, dynamic programming.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- Can you optimize the space complexity of your solution?
- What happens if the input contains duplicates?
- What is the worst-case input for your solution?
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Problem Analysis
To solve the problem of detecting anagrams in a matrix, we can utilize the frequency counting pattern. This approach is applicable here because we need to check whether the characters in a specifi...
Approach
- Frequency Count of Target: First, we count the frequency of each character in the target string. For example, for the target string 'abc', the frequency count would be `{'a': 1, 'b': 1, 'c': 1}...
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