How should I practice Minimum Currency Conversions?

Start by reading the full statement, solve the visible examples, then compare the pattern against related EPAM phone screen problems in FastPrep.

Is Minimum Currency Conversions associated with EPAM?

FastPrep tags this as a EPAM phone screen coding practice problem when the problem catalog has that company and stage context.

Minimum Currency Conversions

EPAM● MediumFULLTIMEPHONE SCREEN

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Problem statement

Each row in pairs contains two currency codes that can be converted directly in either direction.

Return the minimum number of direct conversions needed to move from source to target. Return -1 when no conversion chain exists. If the two codes are equal, return 0.

Function

minimumConversions(pairs: String[][], source: String, target: String) → int

Examples

Example 1

pairs = [["USD","EUR"],["EUR","JPY"],["USD","GBP"]]source = "USD"target = "JPY"return = 2

The shortest chain is USD to EUR to JPY.

Example 2

pairs = [["A","B"],["C","D"]]source = "A"target = "D"return = -1

The currencies are in disconnected components.

Constraints

0 <= pairs.length <= 10000.
Every row contains two nonempty currency codes.
Codes contain uppercase English letters.

Source note: Author-written prompt excerpt retained for source fidelity.