DIY: Remove All Adjacent Duplicates in String II

Problem statement

For this problem, you are given one string str and an integer k. Your task is to implement the remove_duplicates() function. This function will find and remove the k adjacent duplicate characters in the given str.

Constraints

• $1$ <= str.length <= $10^5$
• $2$ <= k <= $10^4$
• The str only contains lowercase English letters.

Input

The remove_duplicates() function will take two inputs: str and k. The following is an example of the inputs:

str = akkkabbba
k = 2

Output

The remove_duplicates() function will return a character string, if there is a character with a count less than k in the given str. If there is no character with a count less than k, then there is no string in the output. The following is the output of the inputs given above:

akaba

Coding exercise

For this coding exercise, you need to implement the remove_duplicates(str, k) function, wherein str is a character string and k is the integer variable.