<p>You are given a string <code>s</code> that consists of lowercase English letters.</p>

<p>A string is called <strong>special</strong> if it is made up of only a single character. For example, the string <code>&quot;abc&quot;</code> is not special, whereas the strings <code>&quot;ddd&quot;</code>, <code>&quot;zz&quot;</code>, and <code>&quot;f&quot;</code> are special.</p>

<p>Return <em>the length of the <strong>longest special substring</strong> of </em><code>s</code> <em>which occurs <strong>at least thrice</strong></em>, <em>or </em><code>-1</code><em> if no special substring occurs at least thrice</em>.</p>

<p>A <strong>substring</strong> is a contiguous <strong>non-empty</strong> sequence of characters within a string.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;aaaa&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> 2
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The longest special substring which occurs thrice is &quot;aa&quot;: substrings &quot;<u><strong>aa</strong></u>aa&quot;, &quot;a<u><strong>aa</strong></u>a&quot;, and &quot;aa<u><strong>aa</strong></u>&quot;.
It can be shown that the maximum length achievable is 2.
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;abcdef&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> -1
<strong>Explanation:</strong> There exists no special substring which occurs at least thrice. Hence return -1.
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 3:</strong></p>

<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> s = &quot;abcaba&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> 1
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The longest special substring which occurs thrice is &quot;a&quot;: substrings &quot;<u><strong>a</strong></u>bcaba&quot;, &quot;abc<u><strong>a</strong></u>ba&quot;, and &quot;abcab<u><strong>a</strong></u>&quot;.
It can be shown that the maximum length achievable is 1.
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>3 &lt;= s.length &lt;= 50</code></li>
	<li><code>s</code> consists of only lowercase English letters.</li>
</ul>

class Solution:
    def maximumLength(self, s: str) -> int:
        ctr = Counter(s)
        max_len_dict = defaultdict(int)
        s_len = 2        
        while s_len < (len(s) - 1):
            for i in range(0, len(s)-s_len+1):
                if len(set(list(s[i:i+s_len]))) == 1:                    
                    if s[i:i+s_len] not in ctr:
                        ctr[s[i:i+s_len]] = 1
                    else:
                        ctr[s[i:i+s_len]] += 1
            s_len += 1

        for c, count in ctr.items():
            max_len_dict[count] = max(max_len_dict[count], len(c))
            # if count >= 3:
            #     print(f"{c}: {count}")
        
        # print(f"{max_len_dict = }")
        res = sorted([v for k, v in max_len_dict.items() if k >= 3], reverse=True)
        return res[0] if res else -1
278