Highlight the Shortest Unique Substring in Each Label
Last updated: August 26, 2026
Quick Overview
Implement a function to find the shortest unique substring for each string in a list, wrapping it with <u> tags, ensuring uniqueness across the list.
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August 26, 20269
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Implement a function to find the shortest unique substring for each string in a list, wrapping it with <u> tags, ensuring uniqueness across the list.
This question is typically asked during the technical screen to evaluate a candidate's problem-solving and coding skills. The interviewer is looking for a clear understanding of string manipulation, algorithm design, and efficiency in handling edge cases. Candidates should demonstrate their ability to write clean, efficient code while explaining their thought process.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Identify the shortest unique substring for each string in the input list.
- Handle case insensitivity when checking for uniqueness.
- Wrap the unique substrings with <u> tags in the final output.
- Consider edge cases such as empty strings or strings with no unique substrings.
- Explain the algorithm's time complexity and any trade-offs made.
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
- How would you optimize your solution for larger input sizes?
- Can you explain how you would handle special characters in the strings?
- What would you change if the requirement was to find the longest unique substring instead?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Approach
To solve the problem, we will iterate through each string in the input list and for each string, we will generate all possible substrings. We will check the uniqueness of each substring against all ot...
Algorithm
- Initialize an empty list to store the results.
- For each string in the input list:
- Generate all possible substrings.
- For each substring, check if it is unique across the other strings (...
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