Grokking Data Structures & Algorithms for Coding Interviews
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Problem 8: Removing Stars From a String (medium)
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Problem Statement

Given a string s, where * represents a star. We can remove a star along with its closest non-star character to its left in a single operation.

The task is to perform as many such operations as possible until all stars have been removed and return the resultant string.

Examples

Example 1

  • Input: "abc*de*f"
  • Expected Output: "abdf"
  • Description: We remove c along with * to get "abde*f", then remove e along with * to get "abdf"

Example 2

  • Input: "a*b*c*d"
  • Expected Output: "d"
  • Description: We remove a along with * to get "b*c*d", then remove b with * to get "c*d", then remove c with * to get "d".

Example 3

  • Input: "abcd"
  • Expected Output: "abcd"
  • Description: As there is no *, the string remains the same.

Constraints:

  • 1 <= s.length <= 10<sup>5</sup>
  • s consists of lowercase English letters and stars *.
  • The operation above can be performed on s.

Try it yourself

Try solving this question here:

Python3
Python3
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