What is the brute force solution for Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal?

The brute force approach for Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal is Brute Force, with O(n²) time complexity and O(1) space complexity. The brute-force approach checks every possible way to redistribute characters among the strings. It involves generating all combinations of characters and checking if they can be rearranged to make all strings equal. The optimal Optimal Solution approach improves this to O(n).

What algorithm or data structure is used to solve Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal?

Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal uses the following concepts: Hash Table, String, Counting. The recommended patterns to study are: Hash Map, Array.

What are the interview tips for Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal?

Always clarify the problem constraints and requirements before diving into solutions. Think about edge cases, such as strings of different lengths or characters. Practice explaining your thought process clearly, as communication is key in interviews.

What are common mistakes when solving Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal?

Assuming that character arrangement matters when it does not. Not considering the total number of characters before checking distribution.

#1897

Redistribute Characters to Make All Strings Equal

Easy

Hash TableStringCountingHash MapArray

LeetCode ↗

Approaches

Brute ForceOptimal

Complexity Comparison

	Brute Force	Optimal Solution★
Time	O(n²)	O(n)
Space	O(1)	O(n)

💡

Intuition

Time O(n)Space O(n)

The optimal approach focuses on counting character frequencies and checking if they can be evenly distributed among the strings without needing to simulate the redistribution. This is efficient and straightforward.

⚙️

Algorithm

3 steps

1Step 1: Initialize a frequency counter for all characters in the input strings.
2Step 2: Calculate the total number of characters and check if it can be evenly divided by the number of strings.
3Step 3: If it can be evenly divided, return true; otherwise, return false.

solution.py9 lines

1# Full working Python code
2from collections import Counter
3
4def makeEqual(words):
5    total_count = Counter()
6    for word in words:
7        total_count.update(word)
8    total_chars = sum(total_count.values())
9    return total_chars % len(words) == 0

ℹ

Complexity note: The optimal solution runs in O(n) time because we only need to count characters and sum their frequencies, which is linear with respect to the total number of characters.

1Character distribution depends solely on frequency, not arrangement.
2If the total character count is not divisible by the number of strings, equal distribution is impossible.

Solutions and explanations are original Tejav content. Problem titles © LeetCode — use the LeetCode button above for the full problem statement.