Complex String and Array Coding | Dataford Interview Questions

Check Point Smart-1 can group endpoint alerts by signature. Given an ordered list of alert signatures and a required multiset of signatures, return the shortest contiguous segment that contains every required signature with the required multiplicity.

If multiple segments have the same minimum length, return the one with the smallest starting index. Return [start, end] using inclusive indices, or [] if no valid segment exists.

Formal Specification

Implement minimum_alert_window(alerts, required), where alerts and required are lists of strings. The result is a list of two integers, [start, end], or an empty list. Signature matching is case-sensitive.

Constraints

1 <= len(alerts) <= 100000
1 <= len(required) <= 100000
Each signature is a non-empty string of length at most 64
Signatures may repeat in either list
Matching is case-sensitive

Function Signature

def minimum_alert_window(alerts, required):

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