Question 1
What is the minimum number of states in a DFA accepting the language $L = {w$ in {a, b}* | w contains 'aba' as a substring}?
For substring 'aba': states represent prefixes matched: $\epsilon (q0), 'a' (q1), 'ab' (q2)$, and 'aba' (q3, dead accept state). Total 4 states.