2024-02-04
76. Minimum Window Substring

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

Problem:
Given two strings s and t of lengths m and n respectively, return the minimum window substring of s such that every character in t (including duplicates) is included in the window. If there is no such substring, return the empty string "".

The testcases will be generated such that the answer is unique.

Example 1:

Input: s = "ADOBECODEBANC", t = "ABC"
Output: "BANC"
Explanation: The minimum window substring "BANC" includes 'A', 'B', and 'C' from string t.

Example 2:

Input: s = "a", t = "a"
Output: "a"
Explanation: The entire string s is the minimum window.

Example 3:

Input: s = "a", t = "aa"
Output: ""
Explanation: Both 'a's from t must be included in the window.
Since the largest window of s only has one 'a', return empty string.

Constraints:

• m == s.length
• n == t.length
• 1 <= m, n <= 10^5
• s and t consist of uppercase and lowercase English letters.

Follow up: Could you find an algorithm that runs in O(m + n) time?

2024-02-05
387. First Unique Character in a String

Topic: Hash Table, String, Queue, Counting
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given a string s, find the first non-repeating character in it and return its index. If it does not exist, return -1.

Example 1:

Input: s = "leetcode"
Output: 0

Example 2:

Input: s = "loveleetcode"
Output: 2

Example 3:

Input: s = "aabb"
Output: -1

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 10^5
• s consists of only lowercase English letters.

2024-02-06
49. Group Anagrams

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

Problem:
Given an array of strings strs, group the anagrams together. You can return the answer in any order.

An Anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once.

Example 1:

Input: strs = ["eat","tea","tan","ate","nat","bat"]
Output: [["bat"],["nat","tan"],["ate","eat","tea"]]

Example 2:

Input: strs = [""]
Output: [[""]]

Example 3:

Input: strs = ["a"]
Output: [["a"]]

Constraints:

• 1 <= strs.length <= 10^4
• 0 <= strs[i].length <= 100
• strs[i] consists of lowercase English letters.

2024-02-07
451. Sort Characters By Frequency

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

Problem:
Given a string s, sort it in decreasing order based on the frequency of the characters. The frequency of a character is the number of times it appears in the string.

Return the sorted string. If there are multiple answers, return any of them.

Example 1:

Input: s = "tree"
Output: "eert"
Explanation: 'e' appears twice while 'r' and 't' both appear once.
So 'e' must appear before both 'r' and 't'. Therefore "eetr" is also a valid answer.

Example 2:

Input: s = "cccaaa"
Output: "aaaccc"
Explanation: Both 'c' and 'a' appear three times, so both "cccaaa" and "aaaccc" are valid answers.
Note that "cacaca" is incorrect, as the same characters must be together.

Example 3:

Input: s = "Aabb"
Output: "bbAa"
Explanation: "bbaA" is also a valid answer, but "Aabb" is incorrect.
Note that 'A' and 'a' are treated as two different characters.

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 5 * 10^5
• s consists of uppercase and lowercase English letters and digits.

2024-02-08
279. Perfect Squares

Topic: Math, Dynamic Programming, Breadth-First Search
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an integer n, return the least number of perfect square numbers that sum to n.

A perfect square is an integer that is the square of an integer; in other words, it is the product of some integer with itself. For example, 1, 4, 9, and 16 are perfect squares while 3 and 11 are not.

Example 1:

Input: n = 12
Output: 3
Explanation: 12 = 4 + 4 + 4.

Example 2:

Input: n = 13
Output: 2
Explanation: 13 = 4 + 9.

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 10^4

2024-02-09
368. Largest Divisible Subset

Topic: Array, Math, Dynamic Programming, Sorting
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a set of distinct positive integers nums, return the largest subset answer such that every pair (answer[i], answer[j]) of elements in this subset satisfies:

• answer[i] % answer[j] == 0, or
• answer[j] % answer[i] == 0

If there are multiple solutions, return any of them.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,2,3]
Output: [1,2]
Explanation: [1,3] is also accepted.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,2,4,8]
Output: [1,2,4,8]

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 1000
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 2 * 10^9
• All the integers in nums are unique.

2024-02-10
647. Palindromic Substrings

Topic: String, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a string s, return the number of palindromic substrings in it.

A string is a palindrome when it reads the same backward as forward.

A substring is a contiguous sequence of characters within the string.

Example 1:

Input: s = "abc"
Output: 3
Explanation: Three palindromic strings: "a", "b", "c".

Example 2:

Input: s = "aaa"
Output: 6
Explanation: Six palindromic strings: "a", "a", "a", "aa", "aa", "aaa".

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 1000
• s consists of lowercase English letters.

2024-02-11
1463. Cherry Pickup II

Topic: Array, Dynamic Programming, Matrix
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
You are given a rows x cols matrix grid representing a field of cherries where grid[i][j] represents the number of cherries that you can collect from the (i, j) cell.

You have two robots that can collect cherries for you:

• Robot #1 is located at the top-left corner (0, 0), and
• Robot #2 is located at the top-right corner (0, cols - 1).

Return the maximum number of cherries collection using both robots by following the rules below:

• From a cell (i, j), robots can move to cell (i + 1, j - 1), (i + 1, j), or (i + 1, j + 1).
• When any robot passes through a cell, It picks up all cherries, and the cell becomes an empty cell.
• When both robots stay in the same cell, only one takes the cherries.
• Both robots cannot move outside of the grid at any moment.
• Both robots should reach the bottom row in grid.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/04/29/sample_1_1802.png

Input: grid = [[3,1,1],[2,5,1],[1,5,5],[2,1,1]]
Output: 24
Explanation: Path of robot #1 and #2 are described in color green and blue respectively.
Cherries taken by Robot #1, (3 + 2 + 5 + 2) = 12.
Cherries taken by Robot #2, (1 + 5 + 5 + 1) = 12.
Total of cherries: 12 + 12 = 24.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/04/23/sample_2_1802.png

Input: grid = [[1,0,0,0,0,0,1],[2,0,0,0,0,3,0],[2,0,9,0,0,0,0],[0,3,0,5,4,0,0],[1,0,2,3,0,0,6]]
Output: 28
Explanation: Path of robot #1 and #2 are described in color green and blue respectively.
Cherries taken by Robot #1, (1 + 9 + 5 + 2) = 17.
Cherries taken by Robot #2, (1 + 3 + 4 + 3) = 11.
Total of cherries: 17 + 11 = 28.

Constraints:

• rows == grid.length
• cols == grid[i].length
• 2 <= rows, cols <= 70
• 0 <= grid[i][j] <= 100

2024-02-12
169. Majority Element

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Divide and Conquer, Sorting, Counting
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given an array nums of size n, return the majority element.

The majority element is the element that appears more than ⌊n / 2⌋ times. You may assume that the majority element always exists in the array.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,2,3]
Output: 3

Example 2:

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

Constraints:

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

Follow-up: Could you solve the problem in linear time and in O(1) space?

2024-02-13
2108. Find First Palindromic String in the Array

Topic: Array, Two Pointers, String
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given an array of strings words, return the first palindromic string in the array. If there is no such string, return an empty string "".

A string is palindromic if it reads the same forward and backward.

Example 1:

Input: words = ["abc","car","ada","racecar","cool"]
Output: "ada"
Explanation: The first string that is palindromic is "ada".
Note that "racecar" is also palindromic, but it is not the first.

Example 2:

Input: words = ["notapalindrome","racecar"]
Output: "racecar"
Explanation: The first and only string that is palindromic is "racecar".

Example 3:

Input: words = ["def","ghi"]
Output: ""
Explanation: There are no palindromic strings, so the empty string is returned.

Constraints:

• 1 <= words.length <= 100
• 1 <= words[i].length <= 100
• words[i] consists only of lowercase English letters.

2024-02-14
2149. Rearrange Array Elements by Sign

Topic: Array, Two Pointers, Simulation
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums of even length consisting of an equal number of positive and negative integers.

You should rearrange the elements of nums such that the modified array follows the given conditions:

1. Every consecutive pair of integers have opposite signs.
2. For all integers with the same sign, the order in which they were present in nums is preserved.
3. The rearranged array begins with a positive integer.

Return the modified array after rearranging the elements to satisfy the aforementioned conditions.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,1,-2,-5,2,-4]
Output: [3,-2,1,-5,2,-4]
Explanation:
The positive integers in nums are [3,1,2]. The negative integers are [-2,-5,-4].
The only possible way to rearrange them such that they satisfy all conditions is [3,-2,1,-5,2,-4].
Other ways such as [1,-2,2,-5,3,-4], [3,1,2,-2,-5,-4], [-2,3,-5,1,-4,2] are incorrect because they do not satisfy one or more conditions.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [-1,1]
Output: [1,-1]
Explanation:
1 is the only positive integer and -1 the only negative integer in nums.
So nums is rearranged to [1,-1].

Constraints:

• 2 <= nums.length <= 2 * 10^5
• nums.length is even
• 1 <= |nums[i]| <= 10^5
• nums consists of equal number of positive and negative integers.

2024-02-15
2971. Find Polygon With the Largest Perimeter

Topic: Array, Greedy, Sorting, Prefix Sum
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an array of positive integers nums of length n.

A polygon is a closed plane figure that has at least 3 sides. The longest side of a polygon is smaller than the sum of its other sides.

Conversely, if you have k (k >= 3) positive real numbers a_1, a_2, a_3, ..., a_k where a_1 <= a_2 <= a_3 <= ... <= a_k and a_1 + a_2 + a_3 + ... + a_k-1 > a_k, then there always exists a polygon with k sides whose lengths are a_1, a_2, a_3, ..., a_k.

The perimeter of a polygon is the sum of lengths of its sides.

Return the largest possible perimeter of a polygon whose sides can be formed from nums, or -1 if it is not possible to create a polygon.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [5,5,5]
Output: 15
Explanation: The only possible polygon that can be made from nums has 3 sides: 5, 5, and 5. The perimeter is 5 + 5 + 5 = 15.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,12,1,2,5,50,3]
Output: 12
Explanation: The polygon with the largest perimeter which can be made from nums has 5 sides: 1, 1, 2, 3, and 5. The perimeter is 1 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 = 12.
We cannot have a polygon with either 12 or 50 as the longest side because it is not possible to include 2 or more smaller sides that have a greater sum than either of them.
It can be shown that the largest possible perimeter is 12.

Example 3:

Input: nums = [5,5,50]
Output: -1
Explanation: There is no possible way to form a polygon from nums, as a polygon has at least 3 sides and 50 > 5 + 5.

Constraints:

• 3 <= n <= 10^5
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 10^9

2024-02-16
1481. Least Number of Unique Integers after K Removals

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Greedy, Sorting, Counting
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an array of integers arr and an integer k. Find the least number of unique integers after removing exactly k elements.

Example 1:

Input: arr = [5,5,4], k = 1
Output: 1
Explanation: Remove the single 4, only 5 is left.

Example 2:

Input: arr = [4,3,1,1,3,3,2], k = 3
Output: 2
Explanation: Remove 4, 2 and either one of the two 1s or three 3s. 1 and 3 will be left.

Constraints:

• 1 <= arr.length <= 10^5
• 1 <= arr[i] <= 10^9
• 0 <= k <= arr.length

2024-02-17
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

2024-02-18
2402. Meeting Rooms III

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Sorting, Heap (Priority Queue), Simulation
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
You are given an integer n. There are n rooms numbered from 0 to n - 1.

You are given a 2D integer array meetings where meetings[i] = [start_i, end_i] means that a meeting will be held during the half-closed time interval [start_i, end_i). All the values of start_i are unique.

Meetings are allocated to rooms in the following manner:

1. Each meeting will take place in the unused room with the lowest number.
2. If there are no available rooms, the meeting will be delayed until a room becomes free. The delayed meeting should have the same duration as the original meeting.
3. When a room becomes unused, meetings that have an earlier original start time should be given the room.

Return the number of the room that held the most meetings. If there are multiple rooms, return the room with the lowest number.

A half-closed interval [a, b) is the interval between a and b including a and not including b.

Example 1:

Input: n = 2, meetings = [[0,10],[1,5],[2,7],[3,4]]
Output: 0
Explanation:
- At time 0, both rooms are not being used. The first meeting starts in room 0.
- At time 1, only room 1 is not being used. The second meeting starts in room 1.
- At time 2, both rooms are being used. The third meeting is delayed.
- At time 3, both rooms are being used. The fourth meeting is delayed.
- At time 5, the meeting in room 1 finishes. The third meeting starts in room 1 for the time period [5,10).
- At time 10, the meetings in both rooms finish. The fourth meeting starts in room 0 for the time period [10,11).
Both rooms 0 and 1 held 2 meetings, so we return 0.

Example 2:

Input: n = 3, meetings = [[1,20],[2,10],[3,5],[4,9],[6,8]]
Output: 1
Explanation:
- At time 1, all three rooms are not being used. The first meeting starts in room 0.
- At time 2, rooms 1 and 2 are not being used. The second meeting starts in room 1.
- At time 3, only room 2 is not being used. The third meeting starts in room 2.
- At time 4, all three rooms are being used. The fourth meeting is delayed.
- At time 5, the meeting in room 2 finishes. The fourth meeting starts in room 2 for the time period [5,10).
- At time 6, all three rooms are being used. The fifth meeting is delayed.
- At time 10, the meetings in rooms 1 and 2 finish. The fifth meeting starts in room 1 for the time period [10,12).
Room 0 held 1 meeting while rooms 1 and 2 each held 2 meetings, so we return 1.

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 100
• 1 <= meetings.length <= 10^5
• meetings[i].length == 2
• 0 <= start_i < end_i <= 5 * 10^5
• All the values of start_i are unique.

2024-02-19
231. Power of Two

Topic: Math, Bit Manipulation, Recursion
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given an integer n, return true if it is a power of two. Otherwise, return false.

An integer n is a power of two, if there exists an integer x such that n == 2^x.

Example 1:

Input: n = 1
Output: true
Explanation: 2^0 = 1

Example 2:

Input: n = 16
Output: true
Explanation: 2^4 = 16

Example 3:

Input: n = 3
Output: false

Constraints:

• -2^31 <= n <= 2^31 - 1

Follow up: Could you solve it without loops/recursion?

2024-02-20
268. Missing Number

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Math, Binary Search, Bit Manipulation, Sorting
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given an array nums containing n distinct numbers in the range [0, n], return the only number in the range that is missing from the array.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [3,0,1]
Output: 2
Explanation: n = 3 since there are 3 numbers, so all numbers are in the range [0,3]. 2 is the missing number in the range since it does not appear in nums.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [0,1]
Output: 2
Explanation: n = 2 since there are 2 numbers, so all numbers are in the range [0,2]. 2 is the missing number in the range since it does not appear in nums.

Example 3:

Input: nums = [9,6,4,2,3,5,7,0,1]
Output: 8
Explanation: n = 9 since there are 9 numbers, so all numbers are in the range [0,9]. 8 is the missing number in the range since it does not appear in nums.

Constraints:

• n == nums.length
• 1 <= n <= 10^4
• 0 <= nums[i] <= n
• All the numbers of nums are unique.

Follow up: Could you implement a solution using only O(1) extra space complexity and O(n) runtime complexity?

2024-02-21
201. Bitwise AND of Numbers Range

Topic: Bit Manipulation
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given two integers left and right that represent the range [left, right], return the bitwise AND of all numbers in this range, inclusive.

Example 1:

Input: left = 5, right = 7
Output: 4

Example 2:

Input: left = 0, right = 0
Output: 0

Example 3:

Input: left = 1, right = 2147483647
Output: 0

Constraints:

• 0 <= left <= right <= 2^31 - 1

2024-02-22
997. Find the Town Judge

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Graph
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
In a town, there are n people labeled from 1 to n. There is a rumor that one of these people is secretly the town judge.

If the town judge exists, then:

1. The town judge trusts nobody.
2. Everybody (except for the town judge) trusts the town judge.
3. There is exactly one person that satisfies properties 1 and 2.

You are given an array trust where trust[i] = [a_i, b_i] representing that the person labeled a_i trusts the person labeled b_i. If a trust relationship does not exist in trust array, then such a trust relationship does not exist.

Return the label of the town judge if the town judge exists and can be identified, or return -1 otherwise.

Example 1:

Input: n = 2, trust = [[1,2]]
Output: 2

Example 2:

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

Example 3:

Input: n = 3, trust = [[1,3],[2,3],[3,1]]
Output: -1

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 1000
• 0 <= trust.length <= 10^4
• trust[i].length == 2
• All the pairs of trust are unique.
• a_i != b_i
• 1 <= a_i, b_i <= n

2024-02-23
787. Cheapest Flights Within K Stops

Topic: Dynamic Programming, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Graph, Heap (Priority Queue), Shortest Path
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
There are n cities connected by some number of flights. You are given an array flights where flights[i] = [from_i, to_i, price_i] indicates that there is a flight from city from_i to city to_i with cost price_i.

You are also given three integers src, dst, and k, return the cheapest price from src to dst with at most k stops. If there is no such route, return -1.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/03/18/cheapest-flights-within-k-stops-3drawio.png

Input: n = 4, flights = [[0,1,100],[1,2,100],[2,0,100],[1,3,600],[2,3,200]], src = 0, dst = 3, k = 1
Output: 700
Explanation:
The graph is shown above.
The optimal path with at most 1 stop from city 0 to 3 is marked in red and has cost 100 + 600 = 700.
Note that the path through cities [0,1,2,3] is cheaper but is invalid because it uses 2 stops.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/03/18/cheapest-flights-within-k-stops-1drawio.png

Input: n = 3, flights = [[0,1,100],[1,2,100],[0,2,500]], src = 0, dst = 2, k = 1
Output: 200
Explanation:
The graph is shown above.
The optimal path with at most 1 stop from city 0 to 2 is marked in red and has cost 100 + 100 = 200.

Example 3:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/03/18/cheapest-flights-within-k-stops-2drawio.png

Input: n = 3, flights = [[0,1,100],[1,2,100],[0,2,500]], src = 0, dst = 2, k = 0
Output: 500
Explanation:
The graph is shown above.
The optimal path with no stops from city 0 to 2 is marked in red and has cost 500.

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 100
• 0 <= flights.length <= (n * (n - 1) / 2)
• flights[i].length == 3
• 0 <= from_i, to_i < n
• from_i != to_i
• 1 <= price_i <= 10^4
• There will not be any multiple flights between two cities.
• 0 <= src, dst, k < n
• src != dst