Framed as 'imagine a Google Doc page with a fixed character width.' Sounds straightforward until you realize how many edge cases pile up: what if there's a newline right after another newline (empty line still counts), what if the input starts with whitespace, what if a word lands exactly at the width limit.
Clarify the exact semantics of word wrapping, especially how to handle explicit newlines and consecutive whitespace, then design a linear-time algorithm that processes the string character by character while tracking the current line length. Discuss edge cases and trade-offs, and finally implement and test the solution.
Pro tip: Explicitly state your assumptions about whitespace handling (e.g., whether consecutive spaces collapse) and newline behavior (e.g., whether they force a line break) before coding, as interviewers often evaluate how you handle ambiguity.
Ask questions to pin down how newlines and consecutive whitespace should affect line breaks and word separation. Confirm whether words can be split and how trailing spaces are treated.
Choose a linear scan approach that tracks the current line length and word boundaries. Decide how to handle explicit newlines (force line break) and consecutive whitespace (collapse or preserve).
Write clean code that iterates through the string, updating line count when the width is exceeded or a newline is encountered. Handle whitespace according to the clarified rules.
Run through provided examples and additional edge cases (empty string, single long word, multiple newlines, leading/trailing spaces) to verify correctness.
Mention time/space complexity (O(n) time, O(1) space) and any alternative approaches (e.g., splitting into words first) with their pros and cons.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.