mediumStringsPattern: Mixed
Longest Lexical Chain Solution
Problem Statement
Given a list of strings, find the longest sequence of strings where each string starts with the last character of the previous string. If multiple sequences have the same maximum length, return the lexicographically smallest one.
Constraints
- The length of the input list will not exceed 1000 words.
- Each word in the list will have a length between 1 and 20 characters.
Time: O(n^2) Space: O(n)
The optimal approach involves using dynamic programming and a hashmap to store the longest chain of words that end with each letter. This approach allows us to efficiently find the longest chain in O(n^2) time complexity.
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