Shortest Common Supersequence - Google Top Interview Questions


Problem Statement :


Given strings a and b, return the length of the shortest string that has both a and b as subsequences.

Example 1

Input

a = "bell"

b = "yellow"

Output

7

Explanation

One possible solution is "ybellow".



Solution :



title-img




                        Solution in C++ :

int solve(string a, string b) {
    int M = a.size(), N = b.size();
    vector<int> dp1(N + 1), dp2(N + 1);
    for (int i = 1; i <= M; i++) {
        for (int j = 1; j <= N; j++)
            dp1[j] =
                a[i - 1] == b[j - 1] ? dp2[j - 1] + 1 : max(max(dp2[j], dp1[j - 1]), dp2[j - 1]);
        dp2.swap(dp1);
    }
    return M + N - dp2[N];
}
                    


                        Solution in Java :

import java.util.*;

class Solution {
    public int solve(String a, String b) {
        int ans = 0;
        int[][] dp = new int[a.length() + 1][b.length() + 1];
        for (int i = 1; i < dp.length; i++) {
            for (int j = 1; j < dp[0].length; j++) {
                if (a.charAt(i - 1) == b.charAt(j - 1))
                    dp[i][j] = 1 + dp[i - 1][j - 1];
                else {
                    dp[i][j] = Math.max(dp[i][j - 1], dp[i - 1][j]);
                }
            }
        }

        int temp = dp[a.length()][b.length()];
        ans = temp + (a.length() - temp) + (b.length() - temp);
        return ans;
    }
}
                    


                        Solution in Python : 
                            
class Solution:
    def solve(self, a, b):
        return len(a) + len(b) - self.LCS(a, b)

    def LCS(self, a, b):
        m = len(a)
        n = len(b)

        # declaring the array for storing the dp values
        L = [[None] * (n + 1) for i in range(m + 1)]

        """Following steps build L[m+1][n+1] in bottom up fashion
        Note: L[i][j] contains length of LCS of X[0..i-1]
        and Y[0..j-1]"""
        for i in range(m + 1):
            for j in range(n + 1):
                if i == 0 or j == 0:
                    L[i][j] = ""
                elif a[i - 1] == b[j - 1]:
                    L[i][j] = L[i - 1][j - 1] + a[i - 1]
                else:
                    if len(L[i - 1][j]) >= len(L[i][j - 1]):
                        L[i][j] = L[i - 1][j]
                    elif len(L[i - 1][j]) < len(L[i][j - 1]):
                        L[i][j] = L[i][j - 1]

        # L[m][n] contains the length of LCS of X[0..n-1] & Y[0..m-1]
        return len(L[m][n])
                    


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