2023-08-05
95. Unique Binary Search Trees II

Topic: Dynamic Programming, Backtracking, Tree, Binary Search Tree, Binary Tree
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an integer n, return all the structurally unique BST's (binary search trees), which has exactly n nodes of unique values from 1 to n. Return the answer in any order.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/01/18/uniquebstn3.jpg

Input: n = 3
Output: [[1,null,2,null,3],[1,null,3,2],[2,1,3],[3,1,null,null,2],[3,2,null,1]]

Example 2:

Input: n = 1
Output: [[1]]

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 8

2023-08-06
920. Number of Music Playlists

Topic: Math, Dynamic Programming, Combinatorics
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
Your music player contains n different songs. You want to listen to goal songs (not necessarily different) during your trip. To avoid boredom, you will create a playlist so that:

• Every song is played at least once.
• A song can only be played again only if k other songs have been played.

Given n, goal, and k, return the number of possible playlists that you can create. Since the answer can be very large, return it modulo 10^9 + 7.

Example 1:

Input: n = 3, goal = 3, k = 1
Output: 6
Explanation: There are 6 possible playlists: [1, 2, 3], [1, 3, 2], [2, 1, 3], [2, 3, 1], [3, 1, 2], and [3, 2, 1].

Example 2:

Input: n = 2, goal = 3, k = 0
Output: 6
Explanation: There are 6 possible playlists: [1, 1, 2], [1, 2, 1], [2, 1, 1], [2, 2, 1], [2, 1, 2], and [1, 2, 2].

Example 3:

Input: n = 2, goal = 3, k = 1
Output: 2
Explanation: There are 2 possible playlists: [1, 2, 1] and [2, 1, 2].

Constraints:

• 0 <= k < n <= goal <= 100

2023-08-07
74. Search a 2D Matrix

Topic: Array, Binary Search, Matrix
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an m x n integer matrix matrix with the following two properties:

• Each row is sorted in non-decreasing order.
• The first integer of each row is greater than the last integer of the previous row.

Given an integer target, return true if target is in matrix or false otherwise.

You must write a solution in O(log(m * n)) time complexity.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/10/05/mat.jpg

Input: matrix = [[1,3,5,7],[10,11,16,20],[23,30,34,60]], target = 3
Output: true

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/10/05/mat2.jpg

Input: matrix = [[1,3,5,7],[10,11,16,20],[23,30,34,60]], target = 13
Output: false

Constraints:

• m == matrix.length
• n == matrix[i].length
• 1 <= m, n <= 100
• -10^4 <= matrix[i][j], target <= 10^4

2023-08-08
33. Search in Rotated Sorted Array

Topic: Array, Binary Search
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
There is an integer array nums sorted in ascending order (with distinct values).

Prior to being passed to your function, nums is possibly rotated at an unknown pivot index k (1 <= k < nums.length) such that the resulting array is [nums[k], nums[k+1], ..., nums[n-1], nums[0], nums[1], ..., nums[k-1]] (0-indexed). For example, [0,1,2,4,5,6,7] might be rotated at pivot index 3 and become [4,5,6,7,0,1,2].

Given the array nums after the possible rotation and an integer target, return the index of target if it is in nums, or -1 if it is not in nums.

You must write an algorithm with O(log n) runtime complexity.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,5,6,7,0,1,2], target = 0
Output: 4

Example 2:

Input: nums = [4,5,6,7,0,1,2], target = 3
Output: -1

Example 3:

Input: nums = [1], target = 0
Output: -1

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 5000
• -10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4
• All values of nums are unique.
• nums is an ascending array that is possibly rotated.
• -10^4 <= target <= 10^4

2023-08-09
2616. Minimize the Maximum Difference of Pairs

Topic: Array, Binary Search, Greedy
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums and an integer p. Find p pairs of indices of nums such that the maximum difference amongst all the pairs is minimized. Also, ensure no index appears more than once amongst the p pairs.

Note that for a pair of elements at the index i and j, the difference of this pair is |nums[i] - nums[j]|, where |x| represents the absolute value of x.

Return the minimum maximum difference among all p pairs. We define the maximum of an empty set to be zero.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [10,1,2,7,1,3], p = 2
Output: 1
Explanation: The first pair is formed from the indices 1 and 4, and the second pair is formed from the indices 2 and 5. 
The maximum difference is max(|nums[1] - nums[4]|, |nums[2] - nums[5]|) = max(0, 1) = 1. Therefore, we return 1.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [4,2,1,2], p = 1
Output: 0
Explanation: Let the indices 1 and 3 form a pair. The difference of that pair is |2 - 2| = 0, which is the minimum we can attain.

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 10^5
• 0 <= nums[i] <= 10^9
• 0 <= p <= (nums.length)/2

2023-08-10
81. Search in Rotated Sorted Array II

Topic: Array, Binary Search
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
There is an integer array nums sorted in non-decreasing order (not necessarily with distinct values).

Before being passed to your function, nums is rotated at an unknown pivot index k (0 <= k < nums.length) such that the resulting array is [nums[k], nums[k+1], ..., nums[n-1], nums[0], nums[1], ..., nums[k-1]] (0-indexed). For example, [0,1,2,4,4,4,5,6,6,7] might be rotated at pivot index 5 and become [4,5,6,6,7,0,1,2,4,4].

Given the array nums after the rotation and an integer target, return true if target is in nums, or false if it is not in nums.

You must decrease the overall operation steps as much as possible.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [2,5,6,0,0,1,2], target = 0
Output: true

Example 2:

Input: nums = [2,5,6,0,0,1,2], target = 3
Output: false

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 5000
• -10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4
• nums is guaranteed to be rotated at some pivot.
• -10^4 <= target <= 10^4

Follow up: This problem is similar to Search in Rotated Sorted Array, but nums may contain duplicates. Would this affect the runtime complexity? How and why?

2023-08-11
518. Coin Change II

Topic: Array, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an integer array coins representing coins of different denominations and an integer amount representing a total amount of money.

Return the number of combinations that make up that amount. If that amount of money cannot be made up by any combination of the coins, return 0.

You may assume that you have an infinite number of each kind of coin.

The answer is guaranteed to fit into a signed 32-bit integer.

Example 1:

Input: amount = 5, coins = [1,2,5]
Output: 4
Explanation: there are four ways to make up the amount:
5=5
5=2+2+1
5=2+1+1+1
5=1+1+1+1+1

Example 2:

Input: amount = 3, coins = [2]
Output: 0
Explanation: the amount of 3 cannot be made up just with coins of 2.

Example 3:

Input: amount = 10, coins = [10]
Output: 1

Constraints:

• 1 <= coins.length <= 300
• 1 <= coins[i] <= 5000
• All the values of coins are unique.
• 0 <= amount <= 5000

2023-08-12
63. Unique Paths II

Topic: Array, Dynamic Programming, Matrix
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an m x n integer array grid. There is a robot initially located at the top-left corner (i.e., grid[0][0]). The robot tries to move to the bottom-right corner (i.e., grid[m - 1][n - 1]). The robot can only move either down or right at any point in time.

An obstacle and space are marked as 1 or 0 respectively in grid. A path that the robot takes cannot include any square that is an obstacle.

Return the number of possible unique paths that the robot can take to reach the bottom-right corner.

The testcases are generated so that the answer will be less than or equal to 2 * 10^9.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/11/04/robot1.jpg

Input: obstacleGrid = [[0,0,0],[0,1,0],[0,0,0]]
Output: 2
Explanation: There is one obstacle in the middle of the 3x3 grid above.
There are two ways to reach the bottom-right corner:
1. Right -> Right -> Down -> Down
2. Down -> Down -> Right -> Right

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/11/04/robot2.jpg

Input: obstacleGrid = [[0,1],[0,0]]
Output: 1

Constraints:

• m == obstacleGrid.length
• n == obstacleGrid[i].length
• 1 <= m, n <= 100
• obstacleGrid[i][j] is 0 or 1.

2023-08-13
2369. Check if There is a Valid Partition For The Array

Topic: Array, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums. You have to partition the array into one or more contiguous subarrays.

We call a partition of the array valid if each of the obtained subarrays satisfies one of the following conditions:

1. The subarray consists of exactly 2 equal elements. For example, the subarray [2,2] is good.
2. The subarray consists of exactly 3 equal elements. For example, the subarray [4,4,4] is good.
3. The subarray consists of exactly 3 consecutive increasing elements, that is, the difference between adjacent elements is 1. For example, the subarray [3,4,5] is good, but the subarray [1,3,5] is not.

Return true if the array has at least one valid partition. Otherwise, return false.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,4,4,5,6]
Output: true
Explanation: The array can be partitioned into the subarrays [4,4] and [4,5,6].
This partition is valid, so we return true.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,1,1,2]
Output: false
Explanation: There is no valid partition for this array.

Constraints:

• 2 <= nums.length <= 10^5
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^6

2023-08-14
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.

Can you solve it without sorting?

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 <= 10^5
• -10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4

2023-08-15
86. Partition List

Topic: Linked List, Two Pointers
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given the head of a linked list and a value x, partition it such that all nodes less than x come before nodes greater than or equal to x.

You should preserve the original relative order of the nodes in each of the two partitions.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/01/04/partition.jpg

Input: head = [1,4,3,2,5,2], x = 3
Output: [1,2,2,4,3,5]

Example 2:

Input: head = [2,1], x = 2
Output: [1,2]

Constraints:

• The number of nodes in the list is in the range [0, 200].
• -100 <= Node.val <= 100
• -200 <= x <= 200

2023-08-16
239. Sliding Window Maximum

Topic: Array, Queue, Sliding Window, Heap (Priority Queue), Monotonic Queue
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
You are given an array of integers nums, there is a sliding window of size k which is moving from the very left of the array to the very right. You can only see the k numbers in the window. Each time the sliding window moves right by one position.

Return the max sliding window.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,3,-1,-3,5,3,6,7], k = 3
Output: [3,3,5,5,6,7]
Explanation: 
Window position                Max
---------------               -----
[1  3  -1] -3  5  3  6  7       3
 1 [3  -1  -3] 5  3  6  7       3
 1  3 [-1  -3  5] 3  6  7       5
 1  3  -1 [-3  5  3] 6  7       5
 1  3  -1  -3 [5  3  6] 7       6
 1  3  -1  -3  5 [3  6  7]      7

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1], k = 1
Output: [1]

Constraints:

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

2023-08-17
542. 01 Matrix

Topic: Array, Dynamic Programming, Breadth-First Search, Matrix
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an m x n binary matrix mat, return the distance of the nearest 0 for each cell.

The distance between two adjacent cells is 1.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/04/24/01-1-grid.jpg

Input: mat = [[0,0,0],[0,1,0],[0,0,0]]
Output: [[0,0,0],[0,1,0],[0,0,0]]

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/04/24/01-2-grid.jpg

Input: mat = [[0,0,0],[0,1,0],[1,1,1]]
Output: [[0,0,0],[0,1,0],[1,2,1]]

Constraints:

• m == mat.length
• n == mat[i].length
• 1 <= m, n <= 10^4
• 1 <= m * n <= 10^4
• mat[i][j] is either 0 or 1.
• There is at least one 0 in mat.

2023-08-18
1615. Maximal Network Rank

Topic: Graph
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
There is an infrastructure of n cities with some number of roads connecting these cities. Each roads[i] = [a_i, b_i] indicates that there is a bidirectional road between cities a_i and b_i.

The network rank of two different cities is defined as the total number of directly connected roads to either city. If a road is directly connected to both cities, it is only counted once.

The maximal network rank of the infrastructure is the maximum network rank of all pairs of different cities.

Given the integer n and the array roads, return the maximal network rank of the entire infrastructure.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/09/21/ex1.png

Input: n = 4, roads = [[0,1],[0,3],[1,2],[1,3]]
Output: 4
Explanation: The network rank of cities 0 and 1 is 4 as there are 4 roads that are connected to either 0 or 1. The road between 0 and 1 is only counted once.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/09/21/ex2.png

Input: n = 5, roads = [[0,1],[0,3],[1,2],[1,3],[2,3],[2,4]]
Output: 5
Explanation: There are 5 roads that are connected to cities 1 or 2.

Example 3:

Input: n = 8, roads = [[0,1],[1,2],[2,3],[2,4],[5,6],[5,7]]
Output: 5
Explanation: The network rank of 2 and 5 is 5. Notice that all the cities do not have to be connected.

Constraints:

• 2 <= n <= 100
• 0 <= roads.length <= n * (n - 1) / 2
• roads[i].length == 2
• 0 <= a_i, b_i <= n-1
• a_i != b_i
• Each pair of cities has at most one road connecting them.

2023-08-19
1489. Find Critical and Pseudo-Critical Edges in Minimum Spanning Tree

Topic: Union Find, Graph, Sorting, Minimum Spanning Tree, Strongly Connected Component
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
Given a weighted undirected connected graph with n vertices numbered from 0 to n - 1, and an array edges where edges[i] = [a_i, b_i, weight_i] represents a bidirectional and weighted edge between nodes a_i and b_i. A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a subset of the graph's edges that connects all vertices without cycles and with the minimum possible total edge weight.

Find all the critical and pseudo-critical edges in the given graph's minimum spanning tree (MST). An MST edge whose deletion from the graph would cause the MST weight to increase is called a critical edge. On the other hand, a pseudo-critical edge is that which can appear in some MSTs but not all.

Note that you can return the indices of the edges in any order.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/06/04/ex1.png

Input: n = 5, edges = [[0,1,1],[1,2,1],[2,3,2],[0,3,2],[0,4,3],[3,4,3],[1,4,6]]
Output: [[0,1],[2,3,4,5]]
Explanation: The figure above describes the graph.
The following figure shows all the possible MSTs:

Image: [https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/06/04/msts.png](https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/06/04/msts.png)

Notice that the two edges 0 and 1 appear in all MSTs, therefore they are critical edges, so we return them in the first list of the output.
The edges 2, 3, 4, and 5 are only part of some MSTs, therefore they are considered pseudo-critical edges. We add them to the second list of the output.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/06/04/ex2.png

Input: n = 4, edges = [[0,1,1],[1,2,1],[2,3,1],[0,3,1]]
Output: [[],[0,1,2,3]]
Explanation: We can observe that since all 4 edges have equal weight, choosing any 3 edges from the given 4 will yield an MST. Therefore all 4 edges are pseudo-critical.

Constraints:

• 2 <= n <= 100
• 1 <= edges.length <= min(200, n * (n - 1) / 2)
• edges[i].length == 3
• 0 <= a_i < b_i < n
• 1 <= weight_i <= 1000
• All pairs (a_i, b_i) are distinct.

2023-08-20
1203. Sort Items by Groups Respecting Dependencies

Topic: Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Graph, Topological Sort
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
There are n items each belonging to zero or one of m groups where group[i] is the group that the i-th item belongs to and it's equal to -1 if the i-th item belongs to no group. The items and the groups are zero indexed. A group can have no item belonging to it.

Return a sorted list of the items such that:

• The items that belong to the same group are next to each other in the sorted list.
• There are some relations between these items where beforeItems[i] is a list containing all the items that should come before the i-th item in the sorted array (to the left of the i-th item).

Return any solution if there is more than one solution and return an empty list if there is no solution.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2019/09/11/1359_ex1.png

Input: n = 8, m = 2, group = [-1,-1,1,0,0,1,0,-1], beforeItems = [[],[6],[5],[6],[3,6],[],[],[]]
Output: [6,3,4,1,5,2,0,7]

Example 2:

Input: n = 8, m = 2, group = [-1,-1,1,0,0,1,0,-1], beforeItems = [[],[6],[5],[6],[3],[],[4],[]]
Output: []
Explanation: This is the same as example 1 except that 4 needs to be before 6 in the sorted list.

Constraints:

• 1 <= m <= n <= 3 * 10^4
• group.length == beforeItems.length == n
• -1 <= group[i] <= m - 1
• 0 <= beforeItems[i].length <= n - 1
• 0 <= beforeItems[i][j] <= n - 1
• i != beforeItems[i][j]
• beforeItems[i]does not contain duplicates elements.

2023-08-21
459. Repeated Substring Pattern

Topic: String, String Matching
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given a string s, check if it can be constructed by taking a substring of it and appending multiple copies of the substring together.

Example 1:

Input: s = "abab"
Output: true
Explanation: It is the substring "ab" twice.

Example 2:

Input: s = "aba"
Output: false

Example 3:

Input: s = "abcabcabcabc"
Output: true
Explanation: It is the substring "abc" four times or the substring "abcabc" twice.

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 10^4
• s consists of lowercase English letters.

2023-08-22
168. Excel Sheet Column Title

Topic: Math, String
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given an integer columnNumber, return its corresponding column title as it appears in an Excel sheet.

For example:

A -> 1
B -> 2
C -> 3
...
Z -> 26
AA -> 27
AB -> 28 
...

Example 1:

Input: columnNumber = 1
Output: "A"

Example 2:

Input: columnNumber = 28
Output: "AB"

Example 3:

Input: columnNumber = 701
Output: "ZY"

Constraints:

• 1 <= columnNumber <= 2^31 - 1

2023-08-23
767. Reorganize String

Topic: Hash Table, String, Greedy, Sorting, Heap (Priority Queue), Counting
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a string s, rearrange the characters of s so that any two adjacent characters are not the same.

Return any possible rearrangement of s or return "" if not possible.

Example 1:

Input: s = "aab"
Output: "aba"

Example 2:

Input: s = "aaab"
Output: ""

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 500
• s consists of lowercase English letters.

2023-08-24
68. Text Justification

Topic: Array, String, Simulation
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
Given an array of strings words and a width maxWidth, format the text such that each line has exactly maxWidth characters and is fully (left and right) justified.

You should pack your words in a greedy approach; that is, pack as many words as you can in each line. Pad extra spaces ' ' when necessary so that each line has exactly maxWidth characters.

Extra spaces between words should be distributed as evenly as possible. If the number of spaces on a line does not divide evenly between words, the empty slots on the left will be assigned more spaces than the slots on the right.

For the last line of text, it should be left-justified, and no extra space is inserted between words.

Note:

• A word is defined as a character sequence consisting of non-space characters only.
• Each word's length is guaranteed to be greater than 0 and not exceed maxWidth.
• The input array words contains at least one word.

Example 1:

Input: words = ["This", "is", "an", "example", "of", "text", "justification."], maxWidth = 16
Output:
[
   "This    is    an",
   "example  of text",
   "justification.  "
]

Example 2:

Input: words = ["What","must","be","acknowledgment","shall","be"], maxWidth = 16
Output:
[
  "What   must   be",
  "acknowledgment  ",
  "shall be        "
]
Explanation: Note that the last line is "shall be    " instead of "shall     be", because the last line must be left-justified instead of fully-justified.
Note that the second line is also left-justified because it contains only one word.

Example 3:

Input: words = ["Science","is","what","we","understand","well","enough","to","explain","to","a","computer.","Art","is","everything","else","we","do"], maxWidth = 20
Output:
[
  "Science  is  what we",
  "understand      well",
  "enough to explain to",
  "a  computer.  Art is",
  "everything  else  we",
  "do                  "
]

Constraints:

• 1 <= words.length <= 300
• 1 <= words[i].length <= 20
• words[i] consists of only English letters and symbols.
• 1 <= maxWidth <= 100
• words[i].length <= maxWidth