Validate string symmetric
Last updated: April 1, 2026
Quick Overview
Given a string, determine if it is symmetric, meaning it reads the same forwards and backwards, ignoring spaces, punctuation, and letter casing. Return true if the string is symmetric and false otherwise. For example, the string "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" should return true.
Shopify
April 1, 202621
10
1,119 solved
Given a string, determine if it is symmetric, meaning it reads the same forwards and backwards, ignoring spaces, punctuation, and letter casing. Return true if the string is symmetric and false otherwise. For example, the string "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" should return true.
Shopify uses this problem in the Onsite to evaluate your algorithmic thinking. They expect you to discuss multiple approaches, analyze trade-offs between them, and implement the optimal solution with clean, readable code.
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?
- What is the worst-case input for your solution?
- How would you modify your solution to handle streaming input?
- How would you parallelize this solution?
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Problem Analysis
The problem at hand requires us to determine if a given string is symmetric, meaning it reads the same forwards and backwards when ignoring spaces, punctuation, and letter casing. This can be effectiv...
Approach
To solve this problem, we can follow these steps:
- Preprocess the string: Create a new string that contains only alphanumeric characters and converts all letters to lowercase. For example, the s...
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