Shortest Word Distance

LeetCode 243 • Easy • Arrays & Hashing

words = ["practice","makes","perfect","coding","makes"], word1="coding", word2="makes" → 1.

TimeO(n)

SpaceO(1)

i: —i1: —i2: —best: ∞

Current i

word1 (i1)

word2 (i2)

i—

best∞

Speed:

Ready

Press Play or Step to walk the algorithm.

Whiteboard

Size:3

Type It

Practice until you don't need to look.

═══ SHORTEST WORD DISTANCE ═══

PATTERN ▸ One-pass last-index O(n) · O(1)

① Track last i1 / i2

② On each match update that index

best = min(best, |i1-i2|) when both set

your implementation

Verify: