> try explaining why that isn’t technically possible in Python (at least during an interview) without using a third-party library.
I'm actually vaguely surprised that Python doesn't have extended-grapheme-cluster segmentation as part of its included batteries.
Every other language I tend to work with these days either bakes support for UAX29 support directly into its stdlib (Ruby, Elixir, Java, JS, ObjC/Swift) or provides it in its "extended first-party" stdlib (e.g. Golang with golang.org/x/text).
I'm actually vaguely surprised that Python doesn't have extended-grapheme-cluster segmentation as part of its included batteries.
Every other language I tend to work with these days either bakes support for UAX29 support directly into its stdlib (Ruby, Elixir, Java, JS, ObjC/Swift) or provides it in its "extended first-party" stdlib (e.g. Golang with golang.org/x/text).