Dsa
Two Pointers
Easy
Sticky DNA Match
You are analyzing two DNA strands, A and B. A 'sticky match' occurs when a prefix of strand A, when reversed, exactly matches a suffix of strand B. Given two strings, find the length of the longest such sticky match.
Example:
Input:
ALPHABET
TEBA
Output:
3
Explanation: The prefix of A 'ALP' reversed is 'PLA' (no). The prefix 'A' reversed is 'A' (suffix of B). The prefix 'ALB' (no). Wait: 'ALPH' is prefix, B suffix 'TEBA'... The prefix 'ABE' reversed is 'EBA', which is a suffix of 'TEBA'. The longest prefix of A that matches the reversed suffix of B is 'ABE' (length 3).
Worked Example:
A = 'GATTACA', B = 'ACATTAG'
Prefixes of A: 'G', 'GA', 'GAT', 'GATT', 'GATTA', 'GATTAC'...
Suffixes of B: 'G', 'AG', 'TAG', 'TTAG', 'ATTAG', 'CATTAG'...
'GATTAC' reversed is 'CATTAG'. Length 6.
Input Format: Two lines, each containing a string.
Output Format: A single integer representing the maximum length.
Key concepts
two_pointersstring_manipulation
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