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Find index of first unique character

Last updated: Mar 29, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates a candidate's skills in string processing, character frequency analysis, and handling character-encoding edge cases such as case sensitivity, Unicode normalization, and grapheme clusters.

  • Medium
  • Snapchat
  • Coding & Algorithms
  • Software Engineer

Find index of first unique character

Company: Snapchat

Role: Software Engineer

Category: Coding & Algorithms

Difficulty: Medium

Interview Round: Technical Screen

Given a string s, return the index of the first character that appears exactly once; if none exists, return -1. Assume s may include both lowercase and uppercase English letters. Clarify whether the check is case-sensitive and implement both case-sensitive and case-insensitive variants. Follow-ups: ( 1) Optimize for a small fixed alphabet—can you use constant extra space? ( 2) How would you support full Unicode, including grapheme clusters and normalization issues? ( 3) If s arrives as a stream too large for memory, how would you detect the first unique character online? Analyze time and space complexity.

Quick Answer: This question evaluates a candidate's skills in string processing, character frequency analysis, and handling character-encoding edge cases such as case sensitivity, Unicode normalization, and grapheme clusters.

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Snapchat
Jul 28, 2025, 12:00 AM
Software Engineer
Technical Screen
Coding & Algorithms
4
0

Given a string s, return the index of the first character that appears exactly once; if none exists, return -1. Assume s may include both lowercase and uppercase English letters. Clarify whether the check is case-sensitive and implement both case-sensitive and case-insensitive variants. Follow-ups: (

  1. Optimize for a small fixed alphabet—can you use constant extra space? (
  2. How would you support full Unicode, including grapheme clusters and normalization issues? (
  3. If s arrives as a stream too large for memory, how would you detect the first unique character online? Analyze time and space complexity.

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