mediumSliding WindowSliding Window

Maximum Number of Vowels in a Substring of Given Length

mediumTime: O(n)Space: O(1)

Signals to notice

max vowels in any substring of length kfixed-size windowcount vowels entering/leaving

Brute force first

For each window count vowels — O(nk).

The key insight

Sliding window: maintain vowel count. +1 if entering char is vowel, -1 if leaving char is vowel. Track max. O(n).

What must stay true

Vowel count updates in O(1) per slide. Never recount the whole window.

Easy way to go wrong

Recounting each window — update incrementally.

Sliding Window Pattern