Python – Find the Longest Common Prefix in an Array of Strings 🚀
The Longest Common Prefix (LCP) problem is a common string-based DSA question asked in interviews at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. It is used in text search, autocomplete suggestions, and genome sequencing.
🔍 Understanding the Logic:
Method 1 – Sorting & Character Comparison (Long Way)
1️⃣ Sort the array of strings to align similar prefixes.
2️⃣ Compare only the first and last string (since sorting groups similar words together).
3️⃣ Iterate character by character and find the longest common sequence.
🔹 Time Complexity: O(N log N) (due to sorting)
🔹 Space Complexity: O(1)
Method 2 – One-Liner Using zip() & takewhile()
from itertools import takewhile
print("".join(c[0] for c in takewhile(lambda x: all(x[0] == ch for ch in x), zip(*words))))
✅ More Pythonic & Elegant
✅ Uses zip() to iterate over all words simultaneously
✅ Uses takewhile() to stop at first mismatch
🚀 Why Is This Important?
✅ Common in coding interviews – Frequently asked in FAANG companies.
✅ Used in search engines & NLP – Helps in text prediction and query optimization.
✅ Optimized approach – Uses efficient prefix comparison techniques.
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