CPMagical CP Library

Problem solution · Python

Maximum Score Words Formed by Letters

Maximum Score Words Formed by Letters: a Python solution using depth-first search. Learn the idea, check the complexity, and read the full code, with credit to walkccc LeetCode Solutions.

Technique
Depth-first search
Source
walkccc LeetCode Solutions
Length
35 lines
Start with the idea.

Try the problem first. If you get stuck, read the approach below, then write your own solution. The full code is at the bottom.

Approach

Depth-first search

For Maximum Score Words Formed by Letters, the implementation follows one branch at a time, making it suitable for components, trees, backtracking, or dependency exploration.

  1. Define the state carried into one recursive or stack frame.
  2. Mark or choose the current state before exploring children.
  3. Combine child results or undo the choice when the branch finishes.

Code notes

  • 35 lines of Python from the credited upstream file 1255.py.
  • The implementation visibly relies on sequence storage, hash lookup.
  • No explicit loop blocks detected, together with recursive traversal.

Complexity

Count unique states for graph traversal; for backtracking, count the branching factor and maximum depth.

Check the problem constraints before deciding whether this complexity will pass.

Source

Code and credit

This code comes from walkccc LeetCode Solutions by P.-Y. Chen (walkccc) and is used under the MIT licence.

Open problem ↗Original source ↗
Full codeMaximum Score Words Formed by Letters · PythonPython
Use this to learn the idea, then write your own version.
class Solution:  def maxScoreWords(      self,      words: list[str],      letters: list[str],      score: list[int],  ) -> int:    count = collections.Counter(letters)     def useWord(i: int) -> int:      isValid = True      earned = 0      for c in words[i]:        count[c] -= 1        if count[c] < 0:          isValid = False        earned += score[ord(c) - ord('a')]      return earned if isValid else -1     def unuseWord(i: int) -> None:      for c in words[i]:        count[c] += 1     def dfs(s: int) -> int:      """Returns the maximum score you can get from words[s..n)."""      ans = 0      for i in range(s, len(words)):        earned = useWord(i)        if earned > 0:          ans = max(ans, earned + dfs(i + 1))        unuseWord(i)      return ans     return dfs(0)

Keep practising

Did this explanation save you time? I'm a Grade 11 student building this free library to make difficult algorithms easier to understand.

Buy me a coffee ↗