Is Number of Segments in a String easy or hard?

Number of Segments in a String is categorized as an Easy problem. It mainly tests understanding of string traversal and boundary detection, which are foundational skills for many string manipulation questions.

Number of Segments in a String Python/Java solution

In Python, you can use s.split() and count non-empty tokens, or manually iterate through the string to detect segment starts. In Java, similar logic applies using split(" ") or a loop checking transitions from space to non-space characters.

How to solve Number of Segments in a String in O(n)?

Iterate through the string and detect the start of each word. If the current character is not a space and either it is at index 0 or the previous character is a space, increment the segment counter. This single-pass scan guarantees O(n) time and O(1) extra space.

What is the best approach for Number of Segments in a String?

The most efficient approach is manual counting with iteration. Scan the string once and increment a counter whenever a non-space character appears after a space or at the start of the string. This detects the beginning of each word segment in O(n) time and O(1) space.

Is Number of Segments in a String asked at Google/Amazon/Meta?

String parsing and token counting problems frequently appear in interviews at companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta. While this exact problem may vary in wording, the concept of scanning strings and detecting word boundaries is a common interview pattern.

What data structure is used in Number of Segments in a String?

The problem mainly relies on string traversal. The optimal approach uses only the input string and a counter variable, so no additional data structures are required. Some implementations use arrays or lists if they rely on splitting the string.

What is the time complexity of Number of Segments in a String?

The optimal solution runs in O(n) time, where n is the length of the string. The algorithm performs a single pass through the characters and checks transitions from spaces to non-space characters to identify segment boundaries.

Description Solution Video 4:54

434. Number of Segments in a String

Easy37.6% acceptance3 companies

Given a string s, return the number of segments in the string.

A segment is defined to be a contiguous sequence of non-space characters.

Example 1:

Input: s = "Hello, my name is John"
Output: 5
Explanation: The five segments are ["Hello,", "my", "name", "is", "John"]

Example 2:

Input: s = "Hello"
Output: 1

Constraints:

0 <= s.length <= 300
s consists of lowercase and uppercase English letters, digits, or one of the following characters "!@#$%^&*()_+-=',.:".
The only space character in s is ' '.

Asked at 3 companies

Google Amazon Microsoft

Topics

String

4:54

Still stuck?Read 4 approaches, or watch a walkthrough.

Open solution

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1class Solution:
2    def countSegments(self, s: str) -> int:
3        

Starter codePython 3Spaces: 4

Examples

Case 1Case 2

Input

"Hello, my name is John"

Input

"Hello"

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