Problem Statement

Given strings s1, s2, and s3, find whether s3 is formed by an interleaving of s1 and s2.

An interleaving of two strings s and t is a configuration where they are divided into non-empty substrings such that:

• s = s1 + s2 + ... + sn
• t = t1 + t2 + ... + tm
• |n - m| <= 1
• The interleaving is s1 + t1 + s2 + t2 + s3 + t3 + ... or t1 + s1 + t2 + s2 + t3 + s3 + ...

Note: a + b is the concatenation of strings a and b.

Example 1:

Input: s1 = "aabcc", s2 = "dbbca", s3 = "aadbbcbcac"
Output: true

Example 2:

Input: s1 = "aabcc", s2 = "dbbca", s3 = "aadbbbaccc"
Output: false

Problem Link

Interleaving String - LeetCode

Algorithm

1. Create a DP array (matrix) of size M*N, where m is the size of the first string and n is the size of the second string. Initialize the matrix to false.
2. If the sum of sizes of smaller strings is not equal to the size of the larger string then return false and break the array as they cant be the interleaved to form the larger string.
3. Run a nested loop the outer loop from 0 to m and the inner loop from 0 to n. Loop counters are i and j.
4. If the values of i and j are both zeroes then mark dp[i][j] as true. If the value of i is zero and j is non zero and the j-1 character of B is equal to j-1 character of C the assign dp[i][j] as dp[i][j-1] and similarly if j is 0 then match i-1 th character of C and A and if it matches then assign dp[i][j] as dp[i-1][j].