This question evaluates a candidate's ability to model pairwise relationships and compute connected components in small graphs, testing skills in graph connectivity and grouping based on shared attributes in arrays of two-digit numbers.
You are given an integer array A of length n (1 <= n <= 100). Each element is a two-digit number (e.g., from 10 to 99). Two numbers are considered connected if they share at least one digit in common.
Examples of “share a digit”:
55
and
58
share digit
5
25
and
45
share digit
5
12
and
23
share digit
2
55
and
66
share no digit
A group is any set of numbers that can be connected through this relation transitively (i.e., if a shares a digit with b, and b shares a digit with c, then a, b, c can be in the same group even if a and c don’t share a digit directly).
Task: Return the maximum possible size of a group (i.e., the size of the largest connected component under the “shares a digit” relation).
Output: an integer, the largest group size.
Clarifications:
A
contains duplicate values, treat them as separate elements (they each contribute 1 to the group size).