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#854
Hard Algorithms

K similar strings

Hash Table String Breadth-First Search
40.6% acceptance
Feb 22, 2026
1175
63
Strings s1 and s2 are k-similar (for some non-negative integer k) if we can swap the positions of two letters in s1 exactly k times so that the resulting string equals s2. Given two anagrams s1 and s2, return the smallest k for which s1 and s2 are k-similar.

Solution

Rust
Time O(n²)
Space O(n)
LeetCode
solution.rs
/*
 * Strings s1 and s2 are k-similar (for some non-negative integer k) if we can swap the positions of two letters in s1 exactly k times so that the resulting string equals s2.
 * Given two anagrams s1 and s2, return the smallest k for which s1 and s2 are k-similar.
 * Example 1:
 * Input: s1 = "ab", s2 = "ba"
 * Output: 1
 * Explanation: The two string are 1-similar because we can use one swap to change s1 to s2: "ab" --> "ba".
 * Example 2:
 * Input: s1 = "abc", s2 = "bca"
 * Output: 2
 * Explanation: The two strings are 2-similar because we can use two swaps to change s1 to s2: "abc" --> "bac" --> "bca".
 * Constraints:
 * 1 <= s1.length <= 20
 * s2.length == s1.length
 * s1 and s2 contain only lowercase letters from the set {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'}.
 * s2 is an anagram of s1.
 */

use std::collections::{HashSet, VecDeque};
impl Solution {
  pub fn k_similarity(s1: String, s2: String) -> i32 {
    if s1 == s2 { return 0; }
    let mut visited = HashSet::new();
    let mut queue = VecDeque::new();
    queue.push_back((s1.clone(), 0));
    visited.insert(s1.clone());
    while let Some((s, swaps)) = queue.pop_front() {
      let bytes_s: Vec<u8> = s.bytes().collect();
      let bytes_t: Vec<u8> = s2.bytes().collect();
      // Find first mismatch
      let i = bytes_s.iter().zip(bytes_t.iter()).position(|(a, b)| a != b).unwrap();
      // Try swapping with positions that match s2[i]
      for j in i+1..bytes_s.len() {
        if bytes_s[j] == bytes_t[i] {
          let mut next = bytes_s.clone();
          next.swap(i, j);
          let ns = String::from_utf8(next).unwrap();
          if ns == s2 { return swaps + 1; }
          if visited.insert(ns.clone()) {
            queue.push_back((ns, swaps + 1));
          }
        }
      }
    }
    0
  }
}