Leetcode #192: Word Frequency
In this guide, we solve Leetcode #192 Word Frequency in Python and focus on the core idea that makes the solution efficient.
You will see the intuition, the step-by-step method, and a clean Python implementation you can use in interviews.
Problem Statement
Write a bash script to calculate the frequency of each word in a text file words.txt. For simplicity sake, you may assume: words.txt contains only lowercase characters and space ' ' characters.
Quick Facts
- Difficulty: Medium
- Premium: No
- Tags: Shell
Intuition
The constraints allow a direct scan that keeps only the essential state.
By translating the requirements into a clean loop, the logic stays easy to reason about.
Approach
Iterate through the data once, updating the state needed to compute the answer.
Return the final state after the traversal is complete.
Steps:
- Parse the input.
- Iterate and update state.
- Return the computed answer.
Example
the day is sunny the the
the sunny is is
Python Solution
from collections import Counter
def word_frequency(path: str = "words.txt") -> None:
with open(path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
words = f.read().split()
counts = Counter(words)
for word, cnt in sorted(counts.items(), key=lambda x: (-x[1], x[0])):
print(f"{word} {cnt}")
Complexity
The time complexity is O(n). The space complexity is O(1) to O(n).
Edge Cases and Pitfalls
Watch for boundary values, empty inputs, and duplicate values where applicable. If the problem involves ordering or constraints, confirm the invariant is preserved at every step.
Summary
This Python solution focuses on the essential structure of the problem and keeps the implementation interview-friendly while meeting the constraints.