PPractick

The problem

In the alpha ramp, row i repeats the i-th letter i times: A, BB, CCC, and so on. It's the letter version of Pattern 4 (repeated row numbers), and it again highlights the difference between a value tied to the row and one tied to the column. Here every character in a row is the same, so the value depends only on the row.

Example for n = 4:

A
BB
CCC
DDDD

Function signature

vector<string> alphaRamp(int n);  // row i: the i-th letter repeated i times

Test cases

Input n	Output rows	Explanation
1	"A"
3	"A", "BB", "CCC"
5	"A", "BB", "CCC", "DDDD", "EEEEE"	Row i uses letter 'A' + i − 1

(Confirm: 1 ≤ n ≤ 26; letters without separators.)

How interviewers phrase it

• "Print the alpha ramp pattern: A, BB, CCC..."
• Asked after the number version (1, 22, 333) to see if you can adapt it to letters.

Clarifying questions to ask

1. Uppercase? N at most 26?
2. Separators?
3. Print or return?

Follow-ups to expect

1. "Which letter goes in row i?"
2. "Can you build a row without an inner loop?"
3. "Complexity?"

Related questions

• Easy and Medium Easy
• Hard Easy
• Pattern 1 Easy
• Pattern 2 Easy
• Pattern 3 Easy
• Pattern 4 Easy

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