LeetCode #2131 — MEDIUM

Longest Palindrome by Concatenating Two Letter Words

Move from brute-force thinking to an efficient approach using array strategy.

Solve on LeetCode
The Problem

Problem Statement

You are given an array of strings words. Each element of words consists of two lowercase English letters.

Create the longest possible palindrome by selecting some elements from words and concatenating them in any order. Each element can be selected at most once.

Return the length of the longest palindrome that you can create. If it is impossible to create any palindrome, return 0.

A palindrome is a string that reads the same forward and backward.

Example 1:

Input: words = ["lc","cl","gg"]
Output: 6
Explanation: One longest palindrome is "lc" + "gg" + "cl" = "lcggcl", of length 6.
Note that "clgglc" is another longest palindrome that can be created.

Example 2:

Input: words = ["ab","ty","yt","lc","cl","ab"]
Output: 8
Explanation: One longest palindrome is "ty" + "lc" + "cl" + "yt" = "tylcclyt", of length 8.
Note that "lcyttycl" is another longest palindrome that can be created.

Example 3:

Input: words = ["cc","ll","xx"]
Output: 2
Explanation: One longest palindrome is "cc", of length 2.
Note that "ll" is another longest palindrome that can be created, and so is "xx".

Constraints:

  • 1 <= words.length <= 105
  • words[i].length == 2
  • words[i] 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: You are given an array of strings words. Each element of words consists of two lowercase English letters. Create the longest possible palindrome by selecting some elements from words and concatenating them in any order. Each element can be selected at most once. Return the length of the longest palindrome that you can create. If it is impossible to create any palindrome, return 0. A palindrome is a string that reads the same forward and backward.

Baseline thinking

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

Pattern signal: Array · Hash Map · Greedy

Example 1

["lc","cl","gg"]

Example 2

["ab","ty","yt","lc","cl","ab"]

Example 3

["cc","ll","xx"]

Related Problems

  • Palindrome Pairs (palindrome-pairs)
  • Longest Palindrome (longest-palindrome)
Step 02

Core Insight

What unlocks the optimal approach

  • A palindrome must be mirrored over the center. Suppose we have a palindrome. If we prepend the word "ab" on the left, what must we append on the right to keep it a palindrome?
  • We must append "ba" on the right. The number of times we can do this is the minimum of (occurrences of "ab") and (occurrences of "ba").
  • For words that are already palindromes, e.g. "aa", we can prepend and append these in pairs as described in the previous hint. We can also use exactly one in the middle to form an even longer palindrome.
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
Upper-end input sizes
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 #2131: Longest Palindrome by Concatenating Two Letter Words
class Solution {
    public int longestPalindrome(String[] words) {
        Map<String, Integer> cnt = new HashMap<>();
        for (var w : words) {
            cnt.merge(w, 1, Integer::sum);
        }
        int ans = 0, x = 0;
        for (var e : cnt.entrySet()) {
            var k = e.getKey();
            var rk = new StringBuilder(k).reverse().toString();
            int v = e.getValue();
            if (k.charAt(0) == k.charAt(1)) {
                x += v & 1;
                ans += v / 2 * 2 * 2;
            } else {
                ans += Math.min(v, cnt.getOrDefault(rk, 0)) * 2;
            }
        }
        ans += x > 0 ? 2 : 0;
        return ans;
    }
}
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(n)
Space
O(n)

Approach Breakdown

EXHAUSTIVE
O(2ⁿ) time
O(n) space

Try every possible combination of choices. With n items each having two states (include/exclude), the search space is 2ⁿ. Evaluating each combination takes O(n), giving O(n × 2ⁿ). The recursion stack or subset storage uses O(n) space.

GREEDY
O(n log n) time
O(1) space

Greedy algorithms typically sort the input (O(n log n)) then make a single pass (O(n)). The sort dominates. If the input is already sorted or the greedy choice can be computed without sorting, time drops to O(n). Proving greedy correctness (exchange argument) is harder than the implementation.

Shortcut: Sort + single pass → O(n log n). If no sort needed → O(n). The hard part is proving it works.
Coach Notes

Common Mistakes

Review these before coding to avoid predictable interview regressions.

Off-by-one on range boundaries

Wrong move: Loop endpoints miss first/last candidate.

Usually fails on: Fails on minimal arrays and exact-boundary answers.

Fix: Re-derive loops from inclusive/exclusive ranges before coding.

Mutating counts without cleanup

Wrong move: Zero-count keys stay in map and break distinct/count constraints.

Usually fails on: Window/map size checks are consistently off by one.

Fix: Delete keys when count reaches zero.

Using greedy without proof

Wrong move: Locally optimal choices may fail globally.

Usually fails on: Counterexamples appear on crafted input orderings.

Fix: Verify with exchange argument or monotonic objective before committing.