Linked List Difference Function | Dataford Interview Questions

Your question is Linked List Difference Function. Start with the requirements on the right.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

Accretive Technology Group tools may need to compare revisions of configuration or content text. Given two strings, return the minimum number of single-character edits required to transform the first string into the second.

An edit is one of the following operations:

Insert one character.
Delete one character.
Replace one character with another.

Formal Specification

Implement edit_distance(source, target).

Input: Two strings, source and target, containing lowercase English letters.
Output: An integer representing the minimum number of edits needed to transform source into target.
Each operation costs exactly 1.
Characters may be inserted, deleted, or replaced in any position.

Constraints

0 <= len(source), len(target) <= 500
Strings contain only lowercase English letters
Each insertion, deletion, or replacement costs exactly 1

Function Signature

def edit_distance(source, target):