[Leet Code] Merge Strings Alternately

Leetcode: https://leetcode.com/problems/merge-strings-alternately/

Problem:

You are given two strings word1 and word2. Merge the strings by adding letters in alternating order, starting with word1. If a string is longer than the other, append the additional letters onto the end of the merged string.

Return the merged string.

Example 1:

Input: word1 = "abc", word2 = "pqr"
Output: "apbqcr"
Explanation: The merged string will be merged as so:
word1:  a   b   c
word2:    p   q   r
merged: a p b q c r

Example 2:

Input: word1 = "ab", word2 = "pqrs"
Output: "apbqrs"
Explanation: Notice that as word2 is longer, "rs" is appended to the end.
word1:  a   b 
word2:    p   q   r   s
merged: a p b q   r   s

Example 3:

Input: word1 = "abcd", word2 = "pq"
Output: "apbqcd"
Explanation: Notice that as word1 is longer, "cd" is appended to the end.
word1:  a   b   c   d
word2:    p   q 
merged: a p b q c   d

Constraints:

• 1 <= word1.length, word2.length <= 100
• word1 and word2 consist of lowercase English letters.

Solution:

class Solution(object):
    def mergeAlternately(self, word1, word2):
        """
        :type word1: str
        :type word2: str
        :rtype: str
        """
        
        if len(word1) > len(word2):
            word2 = word2 + (' ' * (len(word1) - len(word2)))
        elif len(word2) > len(word1):
            word1 = word1 + (' ' * (len(word2) - len(word1)))
        else:
            print "test"
            
        answer = []
        for i in range(len(word1)):
            answer.append(word1[i])
            answer.append(word2[i])
            
        return "".join(answer).replace(' ','')