Minimum Window Substring in Java: Explanation & Practice
Find minimum window containing all characters of pattern
Problem summary
Given strings s and t, find the minimum window in s that contains all characters of t. Classic sliding window problem.
Starter code
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s = "ADOBECODEBANC";
String t = "ABC";
// Track required chars and their counts
// Expand to include all required, shrink to minimize
// Print: BANC
}
}Expected output and test cases
- s=ADOBECODEBANC, t=ABC
BANC
- s=a, t=a
a
- s=a, t=aa
No valid window
Hints
- Use HashMap to track required character frequencies
- Track how many unique chars we still need to match
- Expand right until we have all chars
- Then shrink left while still valid, updating minimum
Related Data Structures & Algorithms exercises
- Practice Maximum Sum Subarray of Size K in Java
- Practice Longest Substring with K Distinct Characters in Java
- Practice Longest Repeating Character Replacement in Java
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