LeetCode 242 | Valid Anagram Explained 🔥 Optimal O(n) Solution | Interview Question

In this video, we solve one of the most common interview questions — LeetCode 242: Valid Anagram. You are given two strings s and t, and your task is to determine whether they are anagrams of each other. Two strings are anagrams if they contain the same characters with the same frequency, but possibly in a different order. ✅ Examples: ✔ anagram & nagaram → Anagram ✖ rat & car → Not an Anagram 🧠 Approach Used: We solve this problem using a frequency counting method, which is one of the most optimal and interview-friendly approaches. Steps: - If the lengths of both strings are different, return False immediately - Use a frequency array of size 26 (for characters a–z) - Traverse both strings in a single loop - Increment frequency for characters in s - Decrement frequency for characters in t - If all values in the frequency array are zero at the end, the strings are anagrams 🚀 Why this approach? - Time Complexity: O(n) - Space Complexity: O(1) - Faster than the sorting approach (which takes O(n log n)) 💻 Python Code Included 📝 Detailed Dry Run Explanation 🎯 Interview-Focused Explanation This solution is commonly asked in coding interviews and is perfect for beginners learning arrays, hashing, and string problems. 👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share if this helped you! More LeetCode + DSA tutorials coming soon 🚀 #LeetCode #ValidAnagram #DSA #Python #CodingInterview