2022-06-05
52. N-Queens II

Topic: Backtracking
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
The n-queens puzzle is the problem of placing n queens on an n x n chessboard such that no two queens attack each other.

Given an integer n, return the number of distinct solutions to the n-queens puzzle.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/11/13/queens.jpg

Input: n = 4
Output: 2
Explanation: There are two distinct solutions to the 4-queens puzzle as shown.

Example 2:

Input: n = 1
Output: 1

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 9

2022-06-06
160. Intersection of Two Linked Lists

Topic: Hash Table, Linked List, Two Pointers
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given the heads of two singly linked-lists headA and headB, return the node at which the two lists intersect. If the two linked lists have no intersection at all, return null.

For example, the following two linked lists begin to intersect at node c1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/03/05/160_statement.png

The test cases are generated such that there are no cycles anywhere in the entire linked structure.

Note that the linked lists must retain their original structure after the function returns.

Custom Judge:

The inputs to the judge are given as follows (your program is not given these inputs):

• intersectVal - The value of the node where the intersection occurs. This is 0 if there is no intersected node.
• listA - The first linked list.
• listB - The second linked list.
• skipA - The number of nodes to skip ahead in listA (starting from the head) to get to the intersected node.
• skipB - The number of nodes to skip ahead in listB (starting from the head) to get to the intersected node.

The judge will then create the linked structure based on these inputs and pass the two heads, headA and headB to your program. If you correctly return the intersected node, then your solution will be accepted.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/03/05/160_example_1_1.png

Input: intersectVal = 8, listA = [4,1,8,4,5], listB = [5,6,1,8,4,5], skipA = 2, skipB = 3
Output: Intersected at '8'
Explanation: The intersected node's value is 8 (note that this must not be 0 if the two lists intersect).
From the head of A, it reads as [4,1,8,4,5]. From the head of B, it reads as [5,6,1,8,4,5]. There are 2 nodes before the intersected node in A; There are 3 nodes before the intersected node in B.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/03/05/160_example_2.png

Input: intersectVal = 2, listA = [1,9,1,2,4], listB = [3,2,4], skipA = 3, skipB = 1
Output: Intersected at '2'
Explanation: The intersected node's value is 2 (note that this must not be 0 if the two lists intersect).
From the head of A, it reads as [1,9,1,2,4]. From the head of B, it reads as [3,2,4]. There are 3 nodes before the intersected node in A; There are 1 node before the intersected node in B.

Example 3:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/03/05/160_example_3.png

Input: intersectVal = 0, listA = [2,6,4], listB = [1,5], skipA = 3, skipB = 2
Output: No intersection
Explanation: From the head of A, it reads as [2,6,4]. From the head of B, it reads as [1,5]. Since the two lists do not intersect, intersectVal must be 0, while skipA and skipB can be arbitrary values.
Explanation: The two lists do not intersect, so return null.

Constraints:

• The number of nodes of listA is in the m.
• The number of nodes of listB is in the n.
• 1 <= m, n <= 3 * 10^4
• 1 <= Node.val <= 10^5
• 0 <= skipA < m
• 0 <= skipB < n
• intersectVal is 0 if listA and listB do not intersect.
• intersectVal == listA[skipA] == listB[skipB] if listA and listB intersect.

Follow up: Could you write a solution that runs in O(m + n) time and use only O(1) memory?

2022-06-07
88. Merge Sorted Array

Topic: Array, Two Pointers, Sorting
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
You are given two integer arrays nums1 and nums2, sorted in non-decreasing order, and two integers m and n, representing the number of elements in nums1 and nums2 respectively.

Merge nums1 and nums2 into a single array sorted in non-decreasing order.

The final sorted array should not be returned by the function, but instead be stored inside the array nums1. To accommodate this, nums1 has a length of m + n, where the first m elements denote the elements that should be merged, and the last n elements are set to 0 and should be ignored. nums2 has a length of n.

Example 1:

Input: nums1 = [1,2,3,0,0,0], m = 3, nums2 = [2,5,6], n = 3
Output: [1,2,2,3,5,6]
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [1,2,3] and [2,5,6].
The result of the merge is [1,2,2,3,5,6] with the underlined elements coming from nums1.

Example 2:

Input: nums1 = [1], m = 1, nums2 = [], n = 0
Output: [1]
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [1] and [].
The result of the merge is [1].

Example 3:

Input: nums1 = [0], m = 0, nums2 = [1], n = 1
Output: [1]
Explanation: The arrays we are merging are [] and [1].
The result of the merge is [1].
Note that because m = 0, there are no elements in nums1. The 0 is only there to ensure the merge result can fit in nums1.

Constraints:

• nums1.length == m + n
• nums2.length == n
• 0 <= m, n <= 200
• 1 <= m + n <= 200
• -10^9 <= nums1[i], nums2[j] <= 10^9

Follow up: Can you come up with an algorithm that runs in O(m + n) time?

2022-06-08
1332. Remove Palindromic Subsequences

Topic: Two Pointers, String
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
You are given a string s consisting only of letters 'a' and 'b'. In a single step you can remove one palindromic subsequence from s.

Return the minimum number of steps to make the given string empty.

A string is a subsequence of a given string if it is generated by deleting some characters of a given string without changing its order. Note that a subsequence does not necessarily need to be contiguous.

A string is called palindrome if is one that reads the same backward as well as forward.

Example 1:

Input: s = "ababa"
Output: 1
Explanation: s is already a palindrome, so its entirety can be removed in a single step.

Example 2:

Input: s = "abb"
Output: 2
Explanation: "abb" -> "bb" -> "". 
Remove palindromic subsequence "a" then "bb".

Example 3:

Input: s = "baabb"
Output: 2
Explanation: "baabb" -> "b" -> "". 
Remove palindromic subsequence "baab" then "b".

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 1000
• s[i] is either 'a' or 'b'.

2022-06-09
167. Two Sum II - Input Array Is Sorted

Topic: Array, Two Pointers, Binary Search
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a 1-indexed array of integers numbers that is already sorted in non-decreasing order, find two numbers such that they add up to a specific target number. Let these two numbers be numbers[index_1] and numbers[index_2] where 1 <= index_1 < index_2 <= numbers.length.

Return the indices of the two numbers, index_1 and index_2, added by one as an integer array [index_1, index_2] of length 2.

The tests are generated such that there is exactly one solution. You may not use the same element twice.

Your solution must use only constant extra space.

Example 1:

Input: numbers = [2,7,11,15], target = 9
Output: [1,2]
Explanation: The sum of 2 and 7 is 9. Therefore, index_1 = 1, index_2 = 2. We return [1, 2].

Example 2:

Input: numbers = [2,3,4], target = 6
Output: [1,3]
Explanation: The sum of 2 and 4 is 6. Therefore index_1 = 1, index_2 = 3. We return [1, 3].

Example 3:

Input: numbers = [-1,0], target = -1
Output: [1,2]
Explanation: The sum of -1 and 0 is -1. Therefore index_1 = 1, index_2 = 2. We return [1, 2].

Constraints:

• 2 <= numbers.length <= 3 * 10^4
• -1000 <= numbers[i] <= 1000
• numbers is sorted in non-decreasing order.
• -1000 <= target <= 1000
• The tests are generated such that there is exactly one solution.

2022-06-10
3. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters

Topic: Hash Table, String, Sliding Window
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a string s, find the length of the longest substring without repeating characters.

Example 1:

Input: s = "abcabcbb"
Output: 3
Explanation: The answer is "abc", with the length of 3.

Example 2:

Input: s = "bbbbb"
Output: 1
Explanation: The answer is "b", with the length of 1.

Example 3:

Input: s = "pwwkew"
Output: 3
Explanation: The answer is "wke", with the length of 3.
Notice that the answer must be a substring, "pwke" is a subsequence and not a substring.

Constraints:

• 0 <= s.length <= 5 * 10^4
• s consists of English letters, digits, symbols and spaces.

2022-06-11
1658. Minimum Operations to Reduce X to Zero

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Binary Search, Sliding Window, Prefix Sum
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an integer array nums and an integer x. In one operation, you can either remove the leftmost or the rightmost element from the array nums and subtract its value from x. Note that this modifies the array for future operations.

Return the minimum number of operations to reduce x to exactly 0 if it is possible, otherwise, return -1.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,1,4,2,3], x = 5
Output: 2
Explanation: The optimal solution is to remove the last two elements to reduce x to zero.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [5,6,7,8,9], x = 4
Output: -1

Example 3:

Input: nums = [3,2,20,1,1,3], x = 10
Output: 5
Explanation: The optimal solution is to remove the last three elements and the first two elements (5 operations in total) to reduce x to zero.

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 10^5
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^4
• 1 <= x <= 10^9

2022-06-12
1695. Maximum Erasure Value

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Sliding Window
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an array of positive integers nums and want to erase a subarray containing unique elements. The score you get by erasing the subarray is equal to the sum of its elements.

Return the maximum score you can get by erasing exactly one subarray.

An array b is called to be a subarray of a if it forms a contiguous subsequence of a, that is, if it is equal to a[l],a[l+1],...,a[r] for some (l,r).

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,2,4,5,6]
Output: 17
Explanation: The optimal subarray here is [2,4,5,6].

Example 2:

Input: nums = [5,2,1,2,5,2,1,2,5]
Output: 8
Explanation: The optimal subarray here is [5,2,1] or [1,2,5].

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 10^5
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^4

2022-06-13
120. Triangle

Topic: Array, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a triangle array, return the minimum path sum from top to bottom.

For each step, you may move to an adjacent number of the row below. More formally, if you are on index i on the current row, you may move to either index i or index i + 1 on the next row.

Example 1:

Input: triangle = [[2],[3,4],[6,5,7],[4,1,8,3]]
Output: 11
Explanation: The triangle looks like:
   2
  3 4
 6 5 7
4 1 8 3
The minimum path sum from top to bottom is 2 + 3 + 5 + 1 = 11 (underlined above).

Example 2:

Input: triangle = [[-10]]
Output: -10

Constraints:

• 1 <= triangle.length <= 200
• triangle[0].length == 1
• triangle[i].length == triangle[i - 1].length + 1
• -10^4 <= triangle[i][j] <= 10^4

Follow up: Could you do this using only O(n) extra space, where n is the total number of rows in the triangle?

2022-06-14
583. Delete Operation for Two Strings

Topic: String, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given two strings word1 and word2, return the minimum number of steps required to make word1 and word2 the same.

In one step, you can delete exactly one character in either string.

Example 1:

Input: word1 = "sea", word2 = "eat"
Output: 2
Explanation: You need one step to make "sea" to "ea" and another step to make "eat" to "ea".

Example 2:

Input: word1 = "leetcode", word2 = "etco"
Output: 4

Constraints:

• 1 <= word1.length, word2.length <= 500
• word1 and word2 consist of only lowercase English letters.

2022-06-15
1048. Longest String Chain

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Two Pointers, String, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an array of words where each word consists of lowercase English letters.

word_A is a predecessor of word_B if and only if we can insert exactly one letter anywhere in word_A without changing the order of the other characters to make it equal to word_B.

• For example, "abc" is a predecessor of "abac", while "cba" is not a predecessor of "bcad".

A word chain is a sequence of words [word_1, word_2, ..., word_k] with k >= 1, where word_1 is a predecessor of word_2, word_2 is a predecessor of word_3, and so on. A single word is trivially a word chain with k == 1.

Return the length of the longest possible word chain with words chosen from the given list of words.

Example 1:

Input: words = ["a","b","ba","bca","bda","bdca"]
Output: 4
Explanation: One of the longest word chains is ["a","ba","bda","bdca"].

Example 2:

Input: words = ["xbc","pcxbcf","xb","cxbc","pcxbc"]
Output: 5
Explanation: All the words can be put in a word chain ["xb", "xbc", "cxbc", "pcxbc", "pcxbcf"].

Example 3:

Input: words = ["abcd","dbqca"]
Output: 1
Explanation: The trivial word chain ["abcd"] is one of the longest word chains.
["abcd","dbqca"] is not a valid word chain because the ordering of the letters is changed.

Constraints:

• 1 <= words.length <= 1000
• 1 <= words[i].length <= 16
• words[i] only consists of lowercase English letters.

2022-06-16
5. Longest Palindromic Substring

Topic: String, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a string s, return the longest palindromic substring in s.

Example 1:

Input: s = "babad"
Output: "bab"
Explanation: "aba" is also a valid answer.

Example 2:

Input: s = "cbbd"
Output: "bb"

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 1000
• s consist of only digits and English letters.

2022-06-17
968. Binary Tree Cameras

Topic: Dynamic Programming, Tree, Depth-First Search, Binary Tree
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
You are given the root of a binary tree. We install cameras on the tree nodes where each camera at a node can monitor its parent, itself, and its immediate children.

Return the minimum number of cameras needed to monitor all nodes of the tree.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2018/12/29/bst_cameras_01.png

Input: root = [0,0,null,0,0]
Output: 1
Explanation: One camera is enough to monitor all nodes if placed as shown.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2018/12/29/bst_cameras_02.png

Input: root = [0,0,null,0,null,0,null,null,0]
Output: 2
Explanation: At least two cameras are needed to monitor all nodes of the tree. The above image shows one of the valid configurations of camera placement.

Constraints:

• The number of nodes in the tree is in the range [1, 1000].
• Node.val == 0

2022-06-18
745. Prefix and Suffix Search

Topic: String, Design, Trie
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
Design a special dictionary with some words that searchs the words in it by a prefix and a suffix.

Implement the WordFilter class:

• WordFilter(string[] words) Initializes the object with the words in the dictionary.
• f(string prefix, string suffix) Returns the index of the word in the dictionary, which has the prefix prefix and the suffix suffix. If there is more than one valid index, return the largest of them. If there is no such word in the dictionary, return -1.

Example 1:

Input
["WordFilter", "f"]
[[["apple"]], ["a", "e"]]
Output
[null, 0]

Explanation
WordFilter wordFilter = new WordFilter(["apple"]);
wordFilter.f("a", "e"); // return 0, because the word at index 0 has prefix = "a" and suffix = 'e".

Constraints:

• 1 <= words.length <= 15000
• 1 <= words[i].length <= 10
• 1 <= prefix.length, suffix.length <= 10
• words[i], prefix and suffix consist of lower-case English letters only.
• At most 15000 calls will be made to the function f.

2022-06-19
1268. Search Suggestions System

Topic: Array, String, Trie
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an array of strings products and a string searchWord.

Design a system that suggests at most three product names from products after each character of searchWord is typed. Suggested products should have common prefix with searchWord. If there are more than three products with a common prefix return the three lexicographically minimums products.

Return a list of lists of the suggested products after each character of searchWord is typed.

Example 1:

Input: products = ["mobile","mouse","moneypot","monitor","mousepad"], searchWord = "mouse"
Output: [
["mobile","moneypot","monitor"],
["mobile","moneypot","monitor"],
["mouse","mousepad"],
["mouse","mousepad"],
["mouse","mousepad"]
]
Explanation: products sorted lexicographically = ["mobile","moneypot","monitor","mouse","mousepad"]
After typing m and mo all products match and we show user ["mobile","moneypot","monitor"]
After typing mou, mous and mouse the system suggests ["mouse","mousepad"]

Example 2:

Input: products = ["havana"], searchWord = "havana"
Output: [["havana"],["havana"],["havana"],["havana"],["havana"],["havana"]]

Example 3:

Input: products = ["bags","baggage","banner","box","cloths"], searchWord = "bags"
Output: [["baggage","bags","banner"],["baggage","bags","banner"],["baggage","bags"],["bags"]]

Constraints:

• 1 <= products.length <= 1000
• 1 <= products[i].length <= 3000
• 1 <= sum(products[i].length) <= 2 * 10^4
• All the strings of products are unique.
• products[i] consists of lowercase English letters.
• 1 <= searchWord.length <= 1000
• searchWord consists of lowercase English letters.

2022-06-20
820. Short Encoding of Words

Topic: Array, Hash Table, String, Trie
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
A valid encoding of an array of words is any reference string s and array of indices indices such that:

• words.length == indices.length
• The reference string s ends with the '#' character.
• For each index indices[i], the substring of s starting from indices[i] and up to (but not including) the next '#' character is equal to words[i].

Given an array of words, return the length of the shortest reference string s possible of any valid encoding of words.

Example 1:

Input: words = ["time", "me", "bell"]
Output: 10
Explanation: A valid encoding would be s = "time#bell#" and indices = [0, 2, 5].
words[0] = "time", the substring of s starting from indices[0] = 0 to the next '#' is underlined in "time#bell#"
words[1] = "me", the substring of s starting from indices[1] = 2 to the next '#' is underlined in "time#bell#"
words[2] = "bell", the substring of s starting from indices[2] = 5 to the next '#' is underlined in "time#bell#"

Example 2:

Input: words = ["t"]
Output: 2
Explanation: A valid encoding would be s = "t#" and indices = [0].

Constraints:

• 1 <= words.length <= 2000
• 1 <= words[i].length <= 7
• words[i] consists of only lowercase letters.

2022-06-21
1642. Furthest Building You Can Reach

Topic: Array, Greedy, Heap (Priority Queue)
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an integer array heights representing the heights of buildings, some bricks, and some ladders.

You start your journey from building 0 and move to the next building by possibly using bricks or ladders.

While moving from building i to building i+1 (0-indexed),

• If the current building's height is greater than or equal to the next building's height, you do not need a ladder or bricks.
• If the current building's height is less than the next building's height, you can either use one ladder or (h[i+1] - h[i]) bricks.

Return the furthest building index (0-indexed) you can reach if you use the given ladders and bricks optimally.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/10/27/q4.gif

Input: heights = [4,2,7,6,9,14,12], bricks = 5, ladders = 1
Output: 4
Explanation: Starting at building 0, you can follow these steps:
- Go to building 1 without using ladders nor bricks since 4 >= 2.
- Go to building 2 using 5 bricks. You must use either bricks or ladders because 2 < 7.
- Go to building 3 without using ladders nor bricks since 7 >= 6.
- Go to building 4 using your only ladder. You must use either bricks or ladders because 6 < 9.
It is impossible to go beyond building 4 because you do not have any more bricks or ladders.

Example 2:

Input: heights = [4,12,2,7,3,18,20,3,19], bricks = 10, ladders = 2
Output: 7

Example 3:

Input: heights = [14,3,19,3], bricks = 17, ladders = 0
Output: 3

Constraints:

• 1 <= heights.length <= 10^5
• 1 <= heights[i] <= 10^6
• 0 <= bricks <= 10^9
• 0 <= ladders <= heights.length

2022-06-22
215. Kth Largest Element in an Array

Topic: Array, Divide and Conquer, Sorting, Heap (Priority Queue), Quickselect
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an integer array nums and an integer k, return the k^th largest element in the array.

Note that it is the k^th largest element in the sorted order, not the k^th distinct element.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,2,1,5,6,4], k = 2
Output: 5

Example 2:

Input: nums = [3,2,3,1,2,4,5,5,6], k = 4
Output: 4

Constraints:

• 1 <= k <= nums.length <= 10^4
• -10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4

2022-06-23
630. Course Schedule III

Topic: Array, Greedy, Heap (Priority Queue)
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
There are n different online courses numbered from 1 to n. You are given an array courses where courses[i] = [duration_i, lastDay_i] indicate that the i^th course should be taken continuously for duration_i days and must be finished before or on lastDay_i.

You will start on the 1^st day and you cannot take two or more courses simultaneously.

Return the maximum number of courses that you can take.

Example 1:

Input: courses = [[100,200],[200,1300],[1000,1250],[2000,3200]]
Output: 3
Explanation: 
There are totally 4 courses, but you can take 3 courses at most:
First, take the 1^st course, it costs 100 days so you will finish it on the 100^th day, and ready to take the next course on the 101^st day.
Second, take the 3^rd course, it costs 1000 days so you will finish it on the 1100^th day, and ready to take the next course on the 1101^st day. 
Third, take the 2^nd course, it costs 200 days so you will finish it on the 1300^th day. 
The 4^th course cannot be taken now, since you will finish it on the 3300^th day, which exceeds the closed date.

Example 2:

Input: courses = [[1,2]]
Output: 1

Example 3:

Input: courses = [[3,2],[4,3]]
Output: 0

Constraints:

• 1 <= courses.length <= 10^4
• 1 <= duration_i, lastDay_i <= 10^4

2022-06-24
1354. Construct Target Array With Multiple Sums

Topic: Array, Heap (Priority Queue)
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
You are given an array target of n integers. From a starting array arr consisting of n 1's, you may perform the following procedure :

• let x be the sum of all elements currently in your array.
• choose index i, such that 0 <= i < n and set the value of arr at index i to x.
• You may repeat this procedure as many times as needed.

Return true if it is possible to construct the target array from arr, otherwise, return false.

Example 1:

Input: target = [9,3,5]
Output: true
Explanation: Start with arr = [1, 1, 1] 
[1, 1, 1], sum = 3 choose index 1
[1, 3, 1], sum = 5 choose index 2
[1, 3, 5], sum = 9 choose index 0
[9, 3, 5] Done

Example 2:

Input: target = [1,1,1,2]
Output: false
Explanation: Impossible to create target array from [1,1,1,1].

Example 3:

Input: target = [8,5]
Output: true

Constraints:

• n == target.length
• 1 <= n <= 5 * 10^4
• 1 <= target[i] <= 10^9

2022-06-25
665. Non-decreasing Array

Topic: Array
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an array nums with n integers, your task is to check if it could become non-decreasing by modifying at most one element.

We define an array is non-decreasing if nums[i] <= nums[i + 1] holds for every i (0-based) such that (0 <= i <= n - 2).

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,2,3]
Output: true
Explanation: You could modify the first 4 to 1 to get a non-decreasing array.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [4,2,1]
Output: false
Explanation: You can't get a non-decreasing array by modify at most one element.

Constraints:

• n == nums.length
• 1 <= n <= 10^4
• -10^5 <= nums[i] <= 10^5