101
0/320
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You are given a string s consisting of lowercase English letters. Your task is to divide this string into one or more contiguous substrings such that every resulting substring reads the same forwards and backwards (i.e., is a palindrome).
Your goal is to determine the minimum number of divisions (or "cuts") required to achieve such a partitioning where every segment is a valid palindrome.
Understanding the Problem:
A palindrome is a sequence of characters that remains unchanged when reversed. Examples include "a", "aba", "racecar", and "madam".
When you partition a string, you are splitting it into non-overlapping, contiguous segments that together form the original string. Each "cut" represents a division point between two consecutive characters.
For instance, the string "aab" can be partitioned as:
Since ["aa", "b"] gives us valid palindrome segments with only 1 cut, the minimum number of cuts is 1.
Key Insight: If the entire string is already a palindrome, the answer is 0 (no cuts needed). Otherwise, you must find the optimal way to partition it into palindromic substrings while minimizing the number of cuts.
s = "aab"1The string "aab" can be partitioned into ["aa", "b"], where both "aa" and "b" are palindromes. This partitioning requires exactly 1 cut (between the second 'a' and 'b'). No valid partitioning exists with 0 cuts since "aab" itself is not a palindrome.
s = "a"0The string "a" is already a palindrome by itself, so no cuts are required. The entire string forms a single valid palindrome segment.
s = "ab"1The string "ab" is not a palindrome, so it must be split. The only valid partitioning is ["a", "b"], requiring 1 cut. Each single character is inherently a palindrome.
Constraints