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Problem · Dynamic Programming

Minimum Stickers to Form a Target String

Learn this problem

● Hard

ByteDanceFULLTIMEONSITE INTERVIEW

Problem statement

Given sticker strings and a target string, return the minimum number of stickers needed to form the target.

Each sticker type may be used any number of times.
Each occurrence of a letter on a chosen sticker may cover at most one equal, still-uncovered target position.
Letters on a sticker may be used in any order, and unused letters may be discarded.
Return -1 when the target cannot be formed.

Function

minStickers(stickers: String[], target: String) → int

Examples

Example 1

stickers = ["with","example","science"]target = "thehat"return = 3

Two copies of with and one copy of example can supply all letters of thehat, and two stickers cannot cover every required occurrence.

Example 2

stickers = ["notice","possible"]target = "basicbasic"return = -1

No sticker contains the letter a, so the target is impossible.

Constraints

1 <= stickers.length <= 50.
1 <= stickers[i].length <= 20.
0 <= target.length <= 15.
Every sticker and the target contain only lowercase English letters.