what does the $ sign mean?

This solution doesn't seem to work with my compiler, nor with the Kata. I'm interested to know why this worked before. I generally wrap string-based ternaries in parentheses.

how was it possible?

Why it doesn't work for me?

What is that lol

Also tried this solution without success? Would anyone know why?

Just one look and i've already understood what its doing. Kudos.

A portion of that delay is a one-time initialisation delay, rather than a per-iteration delay.

This would solve issues with empties created from splits on pesky spaces, but doesn't handle the scenario where the string ONLY contains a space (which isn't eleminated as a possibility in the brief), which would result in Min failing due to no elements in the sequence.

Assert.AreEqual(0, Kata.FindShort(" "));

This solution is clean and simple, but doesn't take into account if the string, while not empty, contains any number of whitespace that aren't perfectly placed in the string (i.e. whitespace in the beginning or end or double-spaced).

Assert.AreEqual(1, Kata.FindShort(" a"));
Assert.AreEqual(1, Kata.FindShort("a "));
Assert.AreEqual(2, Kata.FindShort("an amp"));