# Posts tagged as “subsequence”

You are given two strings s and p where p is a subsequence of s. You are also given a distinct 0-indexed integer array removable containing a subset of indices of s (s is also 0-indexed).

You want to choose an integer k (0 <= k <= removable.length) such that, after removing k characters from s using the first k indices in removablep is still a subsequence of s. More formally, you will mark the character at s[removable[i]] for each 0 <= i < k, then remove all marked characters and check if p is still a subsequence.

Return the maximum k you can choose such that p is still a subsequence of s after the removals.

subsequence of a string is a new string generated from the original string with some characters (can be none) deleted without changing the relative order of the remaining characters.

Example 1:

Input: s = "abcacb", p = "ab", removable = [3,1,0]
Output: 2
Explanation: After removing the characters at indices 3 and 1, "abcacb" becomes "accb".
"ab" is a subsequence of "accb".
If we remove the characters at indices 3, 1, and 0, "abcacb" becomes "ccb", and "ab" is no longer a subsequence.
Hence, the maximum k is 2.


Example 2:

Input: s = "abcbddddd", p = "abcd", removable = [3,2,1,4,5,6]
Output: 1
Explanation: After removing the character at index 3, "abcbddddd" becomes "abcddddd".
"abcd" is a subsequence of "abcddddd".


Example 3:

Input: s = "abcab", p = "abc", removable = [0,1,2,3,4]
Output: 0
Explanation: If you remove the first index in the array removable, "abc" is no longer a subsequence.


Constraints:

• 1 <= p.length <= s.length <= 105
• 0 <= removable.length < s.length
• 0 <= removable[i] < s.length
• p is a subsequence of s.
• s and p both consist of lowercase English letters.
• The elements in removable are distinct.

## Solution: Binary Search + Two Pointers

If we don’t remove any thing, p is a subseq of s, as we keep removing, at some point L, p is no longer a subseq of s. e.g [0:True, 1: True, …, L – 1: True, L: False, L+1: False, …, m:False], this array is monotonic. We can use binary search to find the smallest L such that p is no long a subseq of s. Ans = L – 1.

For each guess, we can use two pointers to check whether p is subseq of removed(s) in O(n).

Time complexity: O(nlogn)
Space complexity: O(n)

## C++

You are given two strings, word1 and word2. You want to construct a string in the following manner:

• Choose some non-empty subsequence subsequence1 from word1.
• Choose some non-empty subsequence subsequence2 from word2.
• Concatenate the subsequences: subsequence1 + subsequence2, to make the string.

Return the length of the longest palindrome that can be constructed in the described manner. If no palindromes can be constructed, return 0.

subsequence of a string s is a string that can be made by deleting some (possibly none) characters from s without changing the order of the remaining characters.

palindrome is a string that reads the same forward as well as backward.

Example 1:

Input: word1 = "cacb", word2 = "cbba"
Output: 5
Explanation: Choose "ab" from word1 and "cba" from word2 to make "abcba", which is a palindrome.

Example 2:

Input: word1 = "ab", word2 = "ab"
Output: 3
Explanation: Choose "ab" from word1 and "a" from word2 to make "aba", which is a palindrome.

Example 3:

Input: word1 = "aa", word2 = "bb"
Output: 0
Explanation: You cannot construct a palindrome from the described method, so return 0.

Constraints:

• 1 <= word1.length, word2.length <= 1000
• word1 and word2 consist of lowercase English letters.

## Solution: DP

Let s = word1 + word2, build dp table on s. We just need to make sure there’s at least one char from each string.

Time complexity: O((m+n)^2)
Space complexity: O((m+n)^2)

## C++

O(m+n) Space complexity

## C++

Given two arrays nums1 and nums2.

Return the maximum dot product between non-empty subsequences of nums1 and nums2 with the same length.

A subsequence of a array is a new array which is formed from the original array by deleting some (can be none) of the characters without disturbing the relative positions of the remaining characters. (ie, [2,3,5] is a subsequence of [1,2,3,4,5] while [1,5,3] is not).

Example 1:

Input: nums1 = [2,1,-2,5], nums2 = [3,0,-6]
Output: 18
Explanation: Take subsequence [2,-2] from nums1 and subsequence [3,-6] from nums2.
Their dot product is (2*3 + (-2)*(-6)) = 18.

Example 2:

Input: nums1 = [3,-2], nums2 = [2,-6,7]
Output: 21
Explanation: Take subsequence [3] from nums1 and subsequence [7] from nums2.
Their dot product is (3*7) = 21.

Example 3:

Input: nums1 = [-1,-1], nums2 = [1,1]
Output: -1
Explanation: Take subsequence [-1] from nums1 and subsequence [1] from nums2.
Their dot product is -1.

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums1.length, nums2.length <= 500
• -1000 <= nums1[i], nums2[i] <= 1000

## Solution: DP

dp[i][j] := max product of nums1[0~i], nums2[0~j].

dp[i][j] = max(dp[i-1][j], dp[i][j -1], max(0, dp[i-1][j-1]) + nums1[i]*nums2[j])

Time complexity: O(n1*n2)
Space complexity: O(n1*n2)

## C++

Given a string s consisting only of letters 'a' and 'b'. In a single step you can remove one palindromic subsequence from s.

Return the minimum number of steps to make the given string empty.

A string is a subsequence of a given string, if it is generated by deleting some characters of a given string without changing its order.

A string is called palindrome if is one that reads the same backward as well as forward.

Example 1:

Input: s = "ababa"
Output: 1


Example 2:

Input: s = "abb"
Output: 2
Explanation: "abb" -> "bb" -> "".
Remove palindromic subsequence "a" then "bb".


Example 3:

Input: s = "baabb"
Output: 2
Explanation: "baabb" -> "b" -> "".
Remove palindromic subsequence "baab" then "b".


Example 4:

Input: s = ""
Output: 0


Constraints:

• 0 <= s.length <= 1000
• s only consists of letters ‘a’ and ‘b’

## Solution: Math

if s is empty => 0 step
if s is a palindrome => 1 step
Otherwise, 2 steps…
1. delete all the as
2. delete all the bs

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(n) / O(1)

## C++

Given an integer array arr and an integer difference, return the length of the longest subsequence in arr which is an arithmetic sequence such that the difference between adjacent elements in the subsequence equals difference.

Example 1:

Input: arr = [1,2,3,4], difference = 1
Output: 4
Explanation: The longest arithmetic subsequence is [1,2,3,4].

Example 2:

Input: arr = [1,3,5,7], difference = 1
Output: 1
Explanation: The longest arithmetic subsequence is any single element.


Example 3:

Input: arr = [1,5,7,8,5,3,4,2,1], difference = -2
Output: 4
Explanation: The longest arithmetic subsequence is [7,5,3,1].


Constraints:

• 1 <= arr.length <= 10^5
• -10^4 <= arr[i], difference <= 10^4

## Solution: DP

dp[i] := max length of sequence ends with x
dp[x] = max(0, dp[x – diff]) + 1

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(n)