Is Anagram? Workday Python Interview Question

Given two strings and , return if the two strings are anagrams of each other, otherwise return .

An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once.

You can assume both of the strings will contain lowercase alphabet characters.

Example #1

Input:

Output:

Example #2

Input:

Output:

Example #3

Input:

Output:

Sorting Approach

Intuition

If two strings are anagrams, the only difference is the arrangement of their characters.
To verify this, we can sort both strings. If they are anagrams, their sorted versions will be identical.

Implementation

We can sort the strings in two ways:

1. Convert the string into a list of characters and use to sort it in place.
2. Use Python’s function, which returns a sorted list.

Here's the implementation using the second approach:

Counting Frequency Using a Dictionary

Intuition

If two strings are anagrams, each character should appear the same number of times in both strings.
Thus, we can count the frequency of each character and compare the counts.

Implementation

• We create two dictionaries to count character frequencies for each string.
• At the end, if both dictionaries are identical, the strings are anagrams.

Counting Frequency (Optimal - Single Dictionary)

Intuition

Instead of using two dictionaries, we can use one:

• Increment counts for characters in .
• Decrement counts for characters in .
• If all values are at the end, the strings are anagrams.

Implementation

• Use a single dictionary to track character counts.
• If all dictionary values are at the end, return , otherwise return .