Browse Curriculum
FAANGPrep Sprint
Medium
Prefix Matching
Use Trie to efficiently find all keys matching a prefix.
10 min read
Problem Understanding
This is essentially startsWith but often implies retrieving related data or completing the word. In this lesson, we use the standard startsWith logic as the core building block for Autocomplete systems.
Algorithm Strategy
- Start at the
Trieroot. - Iterate through each character of the
prefix. - Check if the current node has a child for that character.
- If No: Prefix doesn't exist. Return
False. - If Yes: Move to that child node.
- If loop completes: The path exists. Return
True(unlike Search, we ignoreisEnd).
Interactive Visualization
Step 1 / 1
Visualization coming soon...
Initializing...
1x
See how startsWith confirms if a path exists without requiring the isEnd flag.
ON THIS PAGE
- Problem Understanding
- Algorithm Strategy
- Interactive Visualization
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