We use cookies to ensure you have the best browsing experience on our website. Please read our cookie policy for more information about how we use cookies.
Loading...
  1. Practice
  2. Algorithms
  3. Strings
  4. Palindrome Index

Palindrome Index

Given a string of lowercase letters in the range ascii[a-z], determine a character that can be removed to make the string a palindrome. There may be more than one solution, but any will do. For example, if your string is "bcbc", you can either remove 'b' at index or 'c' at index . If the word is already a palindrome or there is no solution, return -1. Otherwise, return the index of a character to remove.

Function Description

Complete the palindromeIndex function in the editor below. It must return the index of the character to remove or .

palindromeIndex has the following parameter(s):

  • s: a string to analyze

Input Format

The first line contains an integer , the number of queries.
Each of the next lines contains a query string .

Constraints

  • All characters are in the range ascii[a-z].

Output Format

Print an integer denoting the zero-indexed position of the character to remove to make a palindrome. If is already a palindrome or no such character exists, print .

Sample Input

3
aaab
baa
aaa

Sample Output

3
0
-1

Explanation

Query 1: "aaab"
Removing 'b' at index results in a palindrome, so we print on a new line.

Query 2: "baa"
Removing 'b' at index results in a palindrome, so we print on a new line.

Query 3: "aaa"
This string is already a palindrome, so we print . Removing any one of the characters would result in a palindrome, but this test comes first.

Note: The custom checker logic for this challenge is available here.