LeetCode #1044 — HARD

Longest Duplicate Substring

Break down a hard problem into reliable checkpoints, edge-case handling, and complexity trade-offs.

Solve on LeetCode
The Problem

Problem Statement

Given a string s, consider all duplicated substrings: (contiguous) substrings of s that occur 2 or more times. The occurrences may overlap.

Return any duplicated substring that has the longest possible length. If s does not have a duplicated substring, the answer is "".

Example 1:

Input: s = "banana"
Output: "ana"

Example 2:

Input: s = "abcd"
Output: ""

Constraints:

  • 2 <= s.length <= 3 * 104
  • s consists of lowercase English letters.
Patterns Used

Roadmap

  1. Brute Force Baseline
  2. Core Insight
  3. Algorithm Walkthrough
  4. Edge Cases
  5. Full Annotated Code
  6. Interactive Study Demo
  7. Complexity Analysis
Step 01

Brute Force Baseline

Problem summary: Given a string s, consider all duplicated substrings: (contiguous) substrings of s that occur 2 or more times. The occurrences may overlap. Return any duplicated substring that has the longest possible length. If s does not have a duplicated substring, the answer is "".

Baseline thinking

Start with the most direct exhaustive search. That gives a correctness anchor before optimizing.

Pattern signal: Binary Search · Sliding Window

Example 1

"banana"

Example 2

"abcd"
Step 02

Core Insight

What unlocks the optimal approach

  • Binary search for the length of the answer. (If there's an answer of length 10, then there are answers of length 9, 8, 7, ...)
  • To check whether an answer of length K exists, we can use Rabin-Karp 's algorithm.
Interview move: turn each hint into an invariant you can check after every iteration/recursion step.
Step 03

Algorithm Walkthrough

Iteration Checklist

  1. Define state (indices, window, stack, map, DP cell, or recursion frame).
  2. Apply one transition step and update the invariant.
  3. Record answer candidate when condition is met.
  4. Continue until all input is consumed.
Use the first example testcase as your mental trace to verify each transition.
Step 04

Edge Cases

Minimum Input
Single element / shortest valid input
Validate boundary behavior before entering the main loop or recursion.
Duplicates & Repeats
Repeated values / repeated states
Decide whether duplicates should be merged, skipped, or counted explicitly.
Extreme Constraints
Largest constraint values
Re-check complexity target against constraints to avoid time-limit issues.
Invalid / Corner Shape
Empty collections, zeros, or disconnected structures
Handle special-case structure before the core algorithm path.
Step 05

Full Annotated Code

Source-backed implementations are provided below for direct study and interview prep.

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #1044: Longest Duplicate Substring
class Solution {
    private long[] p;
    private long[] h;

    public String longestDupSubstring(String s) {
        int base = 131;
        int n = s.length();
        p = new long[n + 10];
        h = new long[n + 10];
        p[0] = 1;
        for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
            p[i + 1] = p[i] * base;
            h[i + 1] = h[i] * base + s.charAt(i);
        }
        String ans = "";
        int left = 0, right = n;
        while (left < right) {
            int mid = (left + right + 1) >> 1;
            String t = check(s, mid);
            if (t.length() > 0) {
                left = mid;
                ans = t;
            } else {
                right = mid - 1;
            }
        }
        return ans;
    }

    private String check(String s, int len) {
        int n = s.length();
        Set<Long> vis = new HashSet<>();
        for (int i = 1; i + len - 1 <= n; ++i) {
            int j = i + len - 1;
            long t = h[j] - h[i - 1] * p[j - i + 1];
            if (vis.contains(t)) {
                return s.substring(i - 1, j);
            }
            vis.add(t);
        }
        return "";
    }
}
Step 06

Interactive Study Demo

Use this to step through a reusable interview workflow for this problem.

Press Step or Run All to begin.
Step 07

Complexity Analysis

Time
O(log n)
Space
O(1)

Approach Breakdown

LINEAR SCAN
O(n) time
O(1) space

Check every element from left to right until we find the target or exhaust the array. Each comparison is O(1), and we may visit all n elements, giving O(n). No extra space needed.

BINARY SEARCH
O(log n) time
O(1) space

Each comparison eliminates half the remaining search space. After k comparisons, the space is n/2ᵏ. We stop when the space is 1, so k = log₂ n. No extra memory needed — just two pointers (lo, hi).

Shortcut: Halving the input each step → O(log n). Works on any monotonic condition, not just sorted arrays.
Coach Notes

Common Mistakes

Review these before coding to avoid predictable interview regressions.

Boundary update without `+1` / `-1`

Wrong move: Setting `lo = mid` or `hi = mid` can stall and create an infinite loop.

Usually fails on: Two-element ranges never converge.

Fix: Use `lo = mid + 1` or `hi = mid - 1` where appropriate.

Shrinking the window only once

Wrong move: Using `if` instead of `while` leaves the window invalid for multiple iterations.

Usually fails on: Over-limit windows stay invalid and produce wrong lengths/counts.

Fix: Shrink in a `while` loop until the invariant is valid again.