Maximize the Confusion of an Exam — LeetCode 2024 Python Solution

The problem

A teacher is writing a test with n true/false questions, with 'T' denoting true and 'F' denoting false. He wants to confuse the students by maximizing the number of consecutive questions with the same answer (multiple trues or multiple falses in a row).

Example

Input

answerKey = "TTFF", k = 2

Output

4

Explanation

We can replace both the 'F's with 'T's to make answerKey = "TTTT".

Python solution

class Solution:
    def maxConsecutiveAnswers(self, answerKey: str, k: int) -> int:
        def f(c: str) -> int:
            cnt = l = 0
            for ch in answerKey:
                cnt += ch == c
                if cnt > k:
                    cnt -= answerKey[l] == c
                    l += 1
            return len(answerKey) - l

        return max(f("T"), f("F"))

Complexity

Pattern: Sliding Window

Collapse a nested loop over every subarray into a single pass with two indices. LeetCode 2024. Maximize the Confusion of an Exam is filed here because LeetCode tags it Sliding Window, which is the vocabulary this hub collects.

The sliding window guide has the Python template for the pattern and the 116 LeetCode problems that use it.

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