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Longest Repeating Character Replacement

Detailed guide and Python implementation for the 'Longest Repeating Character Replacement' problem.

Problem Statement

Easy

You are given a string s and an integer k. You can choose any character of the string and change it to any other uppercase English letter. You can perform this operation at most k times.

Return the length of the longest substring containing the same letter you can get after performing the above operations.

Write a function characterReplacement(s: str, k: int) -> int.

Constraints
  • 1 <= len(s) <= 10^5
  • s consists of only uppercase English letters
  • 0 <= k <= len(s)

Examples

Example 1
Input
s = "ABAB", k = 2
Output
4
Explanation

Replace the two 'A's with 'B's or vice versa to get "BBBB" or "AAAA". The longest substring is 4.

Example 2
Input
s = "AABABBA", k = 1
Output
4
Explanation

Replace the 'B' at index 3 with 'A' to get "AAAAABA". The longest substring of same characters starting from index 0 is "AAAA" with length 4.

Need a Hint?
Consider using Sliding Window-specific data structures like sets or heaps.
Edge Cases to Watch
  • Empty input structures
  • Single element inputs
  • Large numerical bounds

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