Find First Palindromic String in the Array

Problem Description

Given an array of strings words, return the first palindromic string in the array. If there is no such string, return an empty string "". A string is palindromic if it reads the same forward and backward.

Key Insights

• A palindromic string reads the same forwards and backwards.
• The goal is to find the first occurrence of a palindromic string in the list.
• If no palindromic string exists, return an empty string.
• The constraints allow for a simple linear search through the list since the maximum length of the list and strings are manageable.

Space and Time Complexity

Time Complexity: O(n * m), where n is the number of strings and m is the maximum length of a string in the array.
Space Complexity: O(1), as we are using a constant amount of extra space.

Solution

To solve the problem, we can use a simple linear search through the array of strings. For each string, we will check if it is a palindrome by comparing it to its reverse. The algorithm proceeds as follows:

1. Iterate through each string in the array.
2. For each string, check if it reads the same forwards and backwards.
3. If a palindromic string is found, return it immediately.
4. If no palindromic string is found after checking all strings, return an empty string.

We can utilize a straightforward string comparison for the palindrome check.

Code Solutions