Find maximum path in string
Last updated: December 20, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a string consisting of lowercase letters, find the maximum path length by determining the longest contiguous substring that can be formed by traversing the string while adhering to specific movement rules (e.g., moving to adjacent characters). The output should be the length of this maximum path.
Neon
December 20, 202521
12
3,548 solved
Given a string consisting of lowercase letters, find the maximum path length by determining the longest contiguous substring that can be formed by traversing the string while adhering to specific movement rules (e.g., moving to adjacent characters). The output should be the length of this maximum path.
Coding interviews at Neon focus on problem-solving approach as much as the final solution. The interviewer wants to see you break down the problem, consider edge cases, and optimize iteratively. Communication throughout the process is key.
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
- Can you solve this in a single pass?
- How would you parallelize this solution?
- Can you optimize the space complexity of your solution?
- What is the worst-case input for your solution?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
To solve the problem of finding the maximum path length of a contiguous substring in a string, we can identify this as a problem suitable for the sliding window pattern. The reason this applies he...
Approach
- Initialize Variables: Start with two pointers,
startandend, both at the beginning of the string. Create a dictionary to keep track of character counts. Also, maintain a variable `max_leng...
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