Guide to Solve a Coding Challenge Question

A data structure is a format used in organizing and storing data inside a computer system. A data structure is used to collect, store, and manipulate data in a well-structured manner. Conversely, an algorithm is a set of instructions or steps used to solve a problem or manage a task. An algorithm is also used to process data and produce a desired result.

In this article, there is a data structure and algorithm challenge that I am going to walk through on how to solve it. This challenge is to give two strings str1 and str2 and return the largest string x such that x divides both str1 and str2.

https://leetcode.com/problems/greatest-common-divisor-of-strings/

Ways to solve this challenge

1. Moving on to the coding aspect, we will first check to see if str1 and str2 are equal for the first line of code.
2. Then return an empty string if they are not equal.
3. else it has to return the substring of 0 to gcd of the length of str1 1 and length of str2.
4. Then make a method for gcd to calculate it, which will take on input as O and input as K.
5. If the K is equal to 0, it will then return O.
6. We will use the recursive function meaning the function will call itself, where we will say O is the percentile of K.
7. Finally, return the gcd

Below is the solution code of the challenge.

Summary of the solution

The solution checks if the concatenation of the two input strings is equal to the concatenation of the two strings in reverse order. If they are not equal, it returns an empty string, or else, it returns the substring of the first input string with a length equal to the greatest common divisor (GCD) of the lengths of the two input strings. The GCD is calculated using a recursive function that executes the descriptive algorithm.

https://leetcode.com/problems/greatest-common-divisor-of-strings/

Conclusion

The data structure is a way to organize and store data or information in an efficient way, while algorithm is the set of rules followed in solving problems, especially by computers and I encourage everyone to learn and adapt to these concepts. This is will make their IT or technology world easier.