Find the Longest Even-Length Word

Question

The question asks the candidate to find the longest word with an even length from a given string of words, returning the first occurrence if there are multiple words of the same length. If no even-length word exists or the input is null or an empty string, the candidate should return '00'.

Codemia · Accepted Answer

To solve the problem, we will follow these steps:
1. Check if the input string is null or empty. If it is, return '00'.
2. Split the string into individual words using spaces as delimiters.
3. Iterate through the words, checking the length of each word.
4. Keep track of the longest even-length word found during the iteration.

Here is a Python implementation of the solution:
```python
def longest_even_length_word(sentence):
    if not sentence:
        return '00'
    words = sentence.split()
    longest_word = ''
    for word in words:
        if len(word) % 2 == 0 and len(word) > len(longest_word):
            longest_word = word
    return longest_word if longest_word else '00'
```
This function first checks if the input is valid, splits the sentence into words, and then finds the longest even-length word.

The time complexity of this solution is O(n), where n is the number of characters in the input string. This is because we are iterating through the string to split it into words and then again through the list of words to find the longest even-length word. The space complexity is O(m), where m is the number of words in the input string, as we store the split words in a list.

The function handles edge cases by checking if the input is null or an empty string at the beginning. If either condition is true, it immediately returns '00'. Additionally, if there are no even-length words found, it also returns '00'. This ensures that the function behaves correctly under all specified conditions.

Interviewers will look for clarity in the candidate's explanation of their approach. They will also assess how well the candidate handles edge cases and whether they can articulate the time and space complexity of their solution. A well-structured code with comments and a clear understanding of the problem will impress the interviewers.

Find the Longest Even-Length Word

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