Work Bucket

Word Buckets

Challenge Difficulty: Medium | Estimated completion time: ~25 minutes

Write a function that divides a phrase into word buckets, with each bucket containing n or fewer characters. Only include full words inside each bucket.

Examples

split_into_buckets("she sells sea shells by the sea", 10)
output = ["she sells", "sea shells", "by the sea"]
 
split_into_buckets("the mouse jumped over the cheese", 7)
output = ["the", "mouse", "jumped", "over", "the", "cheese"]
 
split_into_buckets("fairy dust coated the air", 20)
output = ["fairy dust coated", "the air"]
 
split_into_buckets("a b c d e", 2)
output = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]

Notes

• Spaces count as one character.
• Trim beginning and end spaces for each word bucket (see final example).
• If buckets are too small to hold a single word, return an empty list: []
• The final goal isn’t to return just the words with a length equal (or lower) to the given n, but to return the entire given phrase bucketized (if possible).

Solution

Python

def split_into_buckets(phrase: str, bucket_size: int) -> list[str]: """ Divide a phrase into word buckets with each bucket containing n or fewer characters. Only full words are included in each bucket. Spaces count as characters. Args: phrase: String phrase to divide into buckets. bucket_size: Maximum number of characters per bucket. Returns: List of strings, each containing words that fit within bucket_size. Returns empty list if any word is too large for the bucket. Examples: >>> split_into_buckets("she sells sea shells by the sea", 10) ['she sells', 'sea shells', 'by the sea'] """ words = phrase.split() # Check if any word is too large for the bucket for word in words: if len(word) > bucket_size: return [] buckets = [] current_bucket = [] current_length = 0 for word in words: word_length = len(word) # Calculate the length if we add this word if current_bucket: # Need to account for space before the word needed_length = current_length + 1 + word_length else: needed_length = word_length if needed_length <= bucket_size: current_bucket.append(word) current_length = needed_length else: # Start a new bucket if current_bucket: buckets.append(" ".join(current_bucket)) current_bucket = [word] current_length = word_length # Add the last bucket if current_bucket: buckets.append(" ".join(current_bucket)) return buckets if __name__ <span class="text-highlight"> "__main__": # Test cases assert split_into_buckets("she sells sea shells by the sea", 10) </span> ["she sells", "sea shells", "by the sea"] assert split_into_buckets("the mouse jumped over the cheese", 7) <span class="text-highlight"> ["the", "mouse", "jumped", "over", "the", "cheese"] assert split_into_buckets("fairy dust coated the air", 20) </span> ["fairy dust coated", "the air"] assert split_into_buckets("a b c d e", 2) <span class="text-highlight"> ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"] assert split_into_buckets("supercalifragilistic", 10) </span> [] print("All test cases passed!")

Output