Find connected components in string
Last updated: March 19, 2026
Quick Overview
Given a string consisting of lowercase letters, identify and return all the connected components, where two characters are considered connected if they are the same and can be grouped together. The output should be a list of strings, each representing a distinct connected component. For example, for the input "aabbccdde", the output should be ["aa", "bb", "cc", "dd", "e"].
Workday
March 19, 20263
4
3,641 solved
Given a string consisting of lowercase letters, identify and return all the connected components, where two characters are considered connected if they are the same and can be grouped together. The output should be a list of strings, each representing a distinct connected component. For example, for the input "aabbccdde", the output should be ["aa", "bb", "cc", "dd", "e"].
This coding problem is frequently asked during Onsite at Workday. The interviewer is testing your ability to translate a problem into clean, working code while discussing time and space complexity. Workday expects candidates to write production-quality code, not just solve the puzzle.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Recognize the underlying problem pattern (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS, etc.)
- Discuss multiple approaches and trade-offs before coding
- Implement an optimal solution with clean, production-quality code
- Handle all edge cases including boundary conditions and invalid input
- Optimize both time and space complexity with clear justification
- Test your solution systematically with well-chosen examples
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
- What if the input doesn't fit in memory?
- How would your solution change if the input was sorted?
- Can you optimize the space complexity of your solution?
Sharpen Your Skills on Codemia
Practice similar problems with our interactive workspace, get AI feedback, and track your progress.
Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
The problem of finding connected components in a string can be approached using the two pointers technique. This is suitable here because we need to traverse the string sequentially while identify...
Approach
- Initialize an empty list
componentsto hold the result. - Use a pointer
ito iterate through the string. Start from the first character. - For each character at index
i, initialize a variab...
Submit Your Answer
