Problem URL: Shortest word distance

We will keep track of both words' last seen index. Then we will iterate through the words array and update the result if we find either of the words. Finally, we will return the result.

class Solution:
    def shortestDistance(self, wordsDict: List[str], word1: str, word2: str) -> int:
        i1, i2 = -1, -1
        minDistance = len(wordsDict)

        for i, word in enumerate(wordsDict):
            if word == word1:
                i1 = i
            elif word == word2:
                i2 = i

            if i1 != -1 and i2 != -1:
                minDistance = min(minDistance, abs(i1-i2))

        return minDistance

Time complexity: O(n), n is the number of words in the wordsDict
Space complexity: O(1)