diff --git a/src/main/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstring.java b/src/main/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstring.java
index b2190316aff2..27aef64ee883 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstring.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstring.java
@@ -29,20 +29,20 @@ public static String longestCommonSubstring(final String a, final String b) {
             return "";
         }
 
-        int[][] dp = new int[a.length() + 1][b.length() + 1];
+        int[] dp = new int[b.length() + 1];
         int maxLength = 0;
         int endIndex = 0;
 
         for (int i = 1; i <= a.length(); i++) {
-            for (int j = 1; j <= b.length(); j++) {
+            for (int j = b.length(); j >= 1; j--) {
                 if (a.charAt(i - 1) == b.charAt(j - 1)) {
-                    dp[i][j] = dp[i - 1][j - 1] + 1;
-                    if (dp[i][j] > maxLength) {
-                        maxLength = dp[i][j];
+                    dp[j] = dp[j - 1] + 1;
+                    if (dp[j] > maxLength) {
+                        maxLength = dp[j];
                         endIndex = i;
                     }
                 } else {
-                    dp[i][j] = 0;
+                    dp[j] = 0;
                 }
             }
         }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstringTest.java b/src/test/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstringTest.java
index e54abcf2f1f3..ea62a6b64741 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstringTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/thealgorithms/strings/LongestCommonSubstringTest.java
@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@
 // author: Vraj Prajapati @Rosander0
 
 import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertTimeoutPreemptively;
 
+import java.time.Duration;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
 public class LongestCommonSubstringTest {
@@ -33,4 +35,97 @@ public void testMultipleMatchesFirstLongest() {
         // Keeps the first matched longest substring when lengths are tied
         assertEquals("abc", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("abcXdef", "abcYdef"));
     }
+
+    // NEW
+
+    @Test
+    public void testSpacesAndSpecialCharacters() {
+        assertEquals(" Hello World! ", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("123 Hello World! 456", "ABC Hello World! XYZ"));
+        assertEquals("@#$%^", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("test@#$%^123", "abc@#$%^xyz"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testCoincidenceAtBoundaries() {
+        // Match at the beginning
+        assertEquals("PREFIX_", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("PREFIX_12345", "PREFIX_67890"));
+        // Match at the end
+        assertEquals("_SUFFIX", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("12345_SUFFIX", "67890_SUFFIX"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testRepeatedPatterns() {
+        assertEquals("anabanana", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("bananabanana", "anabanana"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testLargeInputsPerformanceAndTimeout() {
+        // Generate two 3,000-character strings containing a common substring in the middle
+        int size = 3000;
+        StringBuilder sb1 = new StringBuilder(size);
+        StringBuilder sb2 = new StringBuilder(size);
+
+        for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
+            sb1.append('A');
+            sb2.append('B');
+        }
+
+        String commonPart = "COMMON_LONG_SUBSTRING_TEST_1234567890";
+        sb1.append(commonPart);
+        sb2.append(commonPart);
+
+        for (int i = 0; i < 1500; i++) {
+            sb1.append('X');
+            sb2.append('Y');
+        }
+
+        // Verify that the algorithm completes within 2 seconds
+        assertTimeoutPreemptively(Duration.ofSeconds(2), () -> {
+            String result = LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring(sb1.toString(), sb2.toString());
+            assertEquals(commonPart, result);
+        });
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testVeryLargeInputsPerformance() {
+        // Generate two very large strings (4,000 characters each)
+        int size = 4000;
+        StringBuilder sb1 = new StringBuilder(size);
+        StringBuilder sb2 = new StringBuilder(size);
+
+        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {
+            sb1.append('A');
+            sb2.append('B');
+        }
+
+        assertTimeoutPreemptively(Duration.ofSeconds(2), () -> { assertEquals("", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring(sb1.toString(), sb2.toString())); });
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testCaseSensitivityAndUnicode() {
+        // Case sensitivity test
+        assertEquals("ABC", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("ABCdef", "123ABCxyz"));
+        assertEquals("", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("abc", "ABC"));
+
+        // Full substring containment
+        assertEquals("inside", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("inside", "text_inside_here"));
+
+        // Unicode characters
+        assertEquals("_áéíóú_", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("hola_áéíóú_mundo", "test_áéíóú_abc"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testWhitespaceAndControlCharacters() {
+        // Test with newlines and tabs
+        assertEquals("\t\n", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("start\t\nend", "begin\t\nfinish"));
+
+        // Test with multiple consecutive spaces
+        assertEquals("   ", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("a   b", "x   y"));
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testOverlappingSubstrings() {
+        // Test overlapping matches like "AAAA" in "AAAAA" vs "AAAA"
+        assertEquals("AAAA", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("AAAAA", "AAAA"));
+        assertEquals("ABAB", LongestCommonSubstring.longestCommonSubstring("ABABAB", "CABAB"));
+    }
 }