Maximum Number of Words Found in Sentences - Problem

Array String Easy

A sentence is a list of words that are separated by a single space with no leading or trailing spaces.

You are given an array of strings sentences, where each sentences[i] represents a single sentence.

Return the maximum number of words that appear in a single sentence.

Input & Output

Example 1 — Basic Case

$ Input: sentences = ["alice and bob love leetcode", "i think so too", "this is great thanks very much"]

› Output: 6

💡 Note: First sentence has 5 words, second has 4 words, third has 6 words. Maximum is 6.

Example 2 — Single Word Sentences

$ Input: sentences = ["please wait", "continue to fight", "continue"]

› Output: 3

💡 Note: Word counts are [2, 3, 1]. Maximum is 3 words in "continue to fight".

Example 3 — All Same Length

$ Input: sentences = ["w", "x", "y", "z"]

› Output: 1

💡 Note: All sentences have exactly 1 word each. Maximum is 1.

Constraints

1 ≤ sentences.length ≤ 100
1 ≤ sentences[i].length ≤ 100
sentences[i] consists only of lowercase English letters and ' ' only
sentences[i] does not have leading or trailing spaces
All the words in sentences[i] are separated by a single space

Visualization

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Asked in

L LeetCode 15 M Microsoft 8

The key insight is to count words in each sentence and track the maximum. The optimal approach uses built-in string split functions to efficiently count words by splitting on spaces. Time: O(n×m), Space: O(k) where n is number of sentences, m is average sentence length, and k is maximum words per sentence.

Common Approaches

✓ Brute Force Character Counting

⏱️ Time: O(n×m) Space: O(1)

For each sentence, iterate through every character to count spaces (plus one for word count). Track the maximum count found across all sentences.

String Split Method

⏱️ Time: O(n×m) Space: O(k)

Split each sentence by spaces to create an array of words, then count the array length. Track the maximum count across all sentences.

Brute Force Character Counting — Algorithm Steps

Iterate through each sentence
For each sentence, count characters and spaces manually
Calculate words = spaces + 1
Track maximum word count

Visualization

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Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Check Each Character

Iterate through every character in the sentence

Count Spaces

Increment counter when space is found

Calculate Words

Words = spaces + 1 (if sentence not empty)

Code -

solution.c — C

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int solution(char sentences[][1000], int n) {
    int maxWords = 0;
    
    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
        int wordCount = 0;
        int len = strlen(sentences[i]);
        if (len > 0) {
            wordCount = 1;
            for (int j = 0; j < len; j++) {
                if (sentences[i][j] == ' ') {
                    wordCount++;
                }
            }
        }
        
        if (wordCount > maxWords) {
            maxWords = wordCount;
        }
    }
    
    return maxWords;
}

int main() {
    char line[10000];
    fgets(line, sizeof(line), stdin);
    
    // Simple parsing - count sentences and extract
    char sentences[100][1000];
    int n = 0;
    
    char *ptr = line + 1; // Skip [
    char *start = ptr;
    
    while (*ptr && *ptr != ']') {
        if (*ptr == '"') {
            start = ptr + 1;
            ptr++;
            while (*ptr && *ptr != '"') ptr++;
            if (*ptr == '"') {
                int len = ptr - start;
                strncpy(sentences[n], start, len);
                sentences[n][len] = '\0';
                n++;
            }
        }
        ptr++;
    }
    
    int result = solution(sentences, n);
    printf("%d\n", result);
    return 0;
}

Time & Space Complexity

Time Complexity

⏱️

O(n×m)

n sentences × m average characters per sentence

✓ Linear Growth

Space Complexity

O(1)

Only using variables to track count and maximum

✓ Linear Space

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Maximum Number of Words Found in Sentences - Problem

Input & Output

Constraints

Visualization

Related Problems

Common Approaches

Brute Force Character Counting — Algorithm Steps

Visualization

Code -

Time & Space Complexity

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