2023-01-06
1833. Maximum Ice Cream Bars

Topic: Array, Greedy, Sorting
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
It is a sweltering summer day, and a boy wants to buy some ice cream bars.

At the store, there are n ice cream bars. You are given an array costs of length n, where costs[i] is the price of the i^th ice cream bar in coins. The boy initially has coins coins to spend, and he wants to buy as many ice cream bars as possible. 

Return the maximum number of ice cream bars the boy can buy with coins coins.

Note: The boy can buy the ice cream bars in any order.

Example 1:

Input: costs = [1,3,2,4,1], coins = 7
Output: 4
Explanation: The boy can buy ice cream bars at indices 0,1,2,4 for a total price of 1 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 7.

Example 2:

Input: costs = [10,6,8,7,7,8], coins = 5
Output: 0
Explanation: The boy cannot afford any of the ice cream bars.

Example 3:

Input: costs = [1,6,3,1,2,5], coins = 20
Output: 6
Explanation: The boy can buy all the ice cream bars for a total price of 1 + 6 + 3 + 1 + 2 + 5 = 18.

Constraints:

• costs.length == n
• 1 <= n <= 10^5
• 1 <= costs[i] <= 10^5
• 1 <= coins <= 10^8

2023-01-07
134. Gas Station

Topic: Array, Greedy
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
There are n gas stations along a circular route, where the amount of gas at the i^th station is gas[i].

You have a car with an unlimited gas tank and it costs cost[i] of gas to travel from the i^th station to its next (i + 1)^th station. You begin the journey with an empty tank at one of the gas stations.

Given two integer arrays gas and cost, return the starting gas station's index if you can travel around the circuit once in the clockwise direction, otherwise return -1. If there exists a solution, it is guaranteed to be unique

Example 1:

Input: gas = [1,2,3,4,5], cost = [3,4,5,1,2]
Output: 3
Explanation:
Start at station 3 (index 3) and fill up with 4 unit of gas. Your tank = 0 + 4 = 4
Travel to station 4. Your tank = 4 - 1 + 5 = 8
Travel to station 0. Your tank = 8 - 2 + 1 = 7
Travel to station 1. Your tank = 7 - 3 + 2 = 6
Travel to station 2. Your tank = 6 - 4 + 3 = 5
Travel to station 3. The cost is 5. Your gas is just enough to travel back to station 3.
Therefore, return 3 as the starting index.

Example 2:

Input: gas = [2,3,4], cost = [3,4,3]
Output: -1
Explanation:
You can't start at station 0 or 1, as there is not enough gas to travel to the next station.
Let's start at station 2 and fill up with 4 unit of gas. Your tank = 0 + 4 = 4
Travel to station 0. Your tank = 4 - 3 + 2 = 3
Travel to station 1. Your tank = 3 - 3 + 3 = 3
You cannot travel back to station 2, as it requires 4 unit of gas but you only have 3.
Therefore, you can't travel around the circuit once no matter where you start.

Constraints:

• n == gas.length == cost.length
• 1 <= n <= 10^5
• 0 <= gas[i], cost[i] <= 10^4

2023-01-08
149. Max Points on a Line

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Math, Geometry
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
Given an array of points where points[i] = [x_i, y_i] represents a point on the X-Y plane, return the maximum number of points that lie on the same straight line.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/02/25/plane1.jpg

Input: points = [[1,1],[2,2],[3,3]]
Output: 3

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/02/25/plane2.jpg

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

Constraints:

• 1 <= points.length <= 300
• points[i].length == 2
• -10^4 <= x_i, y_i <= 10^4
• All the points are unique.

2023-01-09
144. Binary Tree Preorder Traversal

Topic: Stack, Tree, Depth-First Search, Binary Tree
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given the root of a binary tree, return the preorder traversal of its nodes' values.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/09/15/inorder_1.jpg

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

Example 2:

Input: root = []
Output: []

Example 3:

Input: root = [1]
Output: [1]

Constraints:

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

Follow up: Recursive solution is trivial, could you do it iteratively?

2023-01-10
100. Same Tree

Topic: Tree, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Binary Tree
Difficulty: Easy

Problem:
Given the roots of two binary trees p and q, write a function to check if they are the same or not.

Two binary trees are considered the same if they are structurally identical, and the nodes have the same value.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/12/20/ex1.jpg

Input: p = [1,2,3], q = [1,2,3]
Output: true

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/12/20/ex2.jpg

Input: p = [1,2], q = [1,null,2]
Output: false

Example 3:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/12/20/ex3.jpg

Input: p = [1,2,1], q = [1,1,2]
Output: false

Constraints:

• The number of nodes in both trees is in the range [0, 100].
• -10^4 <= Node.val <= 10^4

2023-01-11
1443. Minimum Time to Collect All Apples in a Tree

Topic: Hash Table, Tree, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an undirected tree consisting of n vertices numbered from 0 to n-1, which has some apples in their vertices. You spend 1 second to walk over one edge of the tree. Return the minimum time in seconds you have to spend to collect all apples in the tree, starting at vertex 0 and coming back to this vertex.

The edges of the undirected tree are given in the array edges, where edges[i] = [a_i, b_i] means that exists an edge connecting the vertices a_i and b_i. Additionally, there is a boolean array hasApple, where hasApple[i] = true means that vertex i has an apple; otherwise, it does not have any apple.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/04/23/min_time_collect_apple_1.png

Input: n = 7, edges = [[0,1],[0,2],[1,4],[1,5],[2,3],[2,6]], hasApple = [false,false,true,false,true,true,false]
Output: 8 
Explanation: The figure above represents the given tree where red vertices have an apple. One optimal path to collect all apples is shown by the green arrows.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/04/23/min_time_collect_apple_2.png

Input: n = 7, edges = [[0,1],[0,2],[1,4],[1,5],[2,3],[2,6]], hasApple = [false,false,true,false,false,true,false]
Output: 6
Explanation: The figure above represents the given tree where red vertices have an apple. One optimal path to collect all apples is shown by the green arrows.

Example 3:

Input: n = 7, edges = [[0,1],[0,2],[1,4],[1,5],[2,3],[2,6]], hasApple = [false,false,false,false,false,false,false]
Output: 0

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 10^5
• edges.length == n - 1
• edges[i].length == 2
• 0 <= a_i < b_i <= n - 1
• from_i < to_i
• hasApple.length == n

2023-01-12
1519. Number of Nodes in the Sub-Tree With the Same Label

Topic: Hash Table, Tree, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Counting
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given a tree (i.e. a connected, undirected graph that has no cycles) consisting of n nodes numbered from 0 to n - 1 and exactly n - 1 edges. The root of the tree is the node 0, and each node of the tree has a label which is a lower-case character given in the string labels (i.e. The node with the number i has the label labels[i]).

The edges array is given on the form edges[i] = [a_i, b_i], which means there is an edge between nodes a_i and b_i in the tree.

Return an array of size n where ans[i] is the number of nodes in the subtree of the i^th node which have the same label as node i.

A subtree of a tree T is the tree consisting of a node in T and all of its descendant nodes.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/07/01/q3e1.jpg

Input: n = 7, edges = [[0,1],[0,2],[1,4],[1,5],[2,3],[2,6]], labels = "abaedcd"
Output: [2,1,1,1,1,1,1]
Explanation: Node 0 has label 'a' and its sub-tree has node 2 with label 'a' as well, thus the answer is 2. Notice that any node is part of its sub-tree.
Node 1 has a label 'b'. The sub-tree of node 1 contains nodes 1,4 and 5, as nodes 4 and 5 have different labels than node 1, the answer is just 1 (the node itself).

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/07/01/q3e2.jpg

Input: n = 4, edges = [[0,1],[1,2],[0,3]], labels = "bbbb"
Output: [4,2,1,1]
Explanation: The sub-tree of node 2 contains only node 2, so the answer is 1.
The sub-tree of node 3 contains only node 3, so the answer is 1.
The sub-tree of node 1 contains nodes 1 and 2, both have label 'b', thus the answer is 2.
The sub-tree of node 0 contains nodes 0, 1, 2 and 3, all with label 'b', thus the answer is 4.

Example 3:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/07/01/q3e3.jpg

Input: n = 5, edges = [[0,1],[0,2],[1,3],[0,4]], labels = "aabab"
Output: [3,2,1,1,1]

Constraints:

• 1 <= n <= 10^5
• edges.length == n - 1
• edges[i].length == 2
• 0 <= a_i, b_i < n
• a_i != b_i
• labels.length == n
• labels is consisting of only of lowercase English letters.

2023-01-13
2246. Longest Path With Different Adjacent Characters

Topic: Array, String, Tree, Depth-First Search, Graph, Topological Sort
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
You are given a tree (i.e. a connected, undirected graph that has no cycles) rooted at node 0 consisting of n nodes numbered from 0 to n - 1. The tree is represented by a 0-indexed array parent of size n, where parent[i] is the parent of node i. Since node 0 is the root, parent[0] == -1.

You are also given a string s of length n, where s[i] is the character assigned to node i.

Return the length of the longest path in the tree such that no pair of adjacent nodes on the path have the same character assigned to them.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/03/25/testingdrawio.png

Input: parent = [-1,0,0,1,1,2], s = "abacbe"
Output: 3
Explanation: The longest path where each two adjacent nodes have different characters in the tree is the path: 0 -> 1 -> 3. The length of this path is 3, so 3 is returned.
It can be proven that there is no longer path that satisfies the conditions.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/03/25/graph2drawio.png

Input: parent = [-1,0,0,0], s = "aabc"
Output: 3
Explanation: The longest path where each two adjacent nodes have different characters is the path: 2 -> 0 -> 3. The length of this path is 3, so 3 is returned.

Constraints:

• n == parent.length == s.length
• 1 <= n <= 10^5
• 0 <= parent[i] <= n - 1 for all i >= 1
• parent[0] == -1
• parent represents a valid tree.
• s consists of only lowercase English letters.

2023-01-14
1061. Lexicographically Smallest Equivalent String

Topic: String, Union Find
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given two strings of the same length s1 and s2 and a string baseStr.

We say s1[i] and s2[i] are equivalent characters.

• For example, if s1 = "abc" and s2 = "cde", then we have 'a' == 'c', 'b' == 'd', and 'c' == 'e'.

Equivalent characters follow the usual rules of any equivalence relation:

• Reflexivity: 'a' == 'a'.
• Symmetry: 'a' == 'b' implies 'b' == 'a'.
• Transitivity: 'a' == 'b' and 'b' == 'c' implies 'a' == 'c'.

For example, given the equivalency information from s1 = "abc" and s2 = "cde", "acd" and "aab" are equivalent strings of baseStr = "eed", and "aab" is the lexicographically smallest equivalent string of baseStr.

Return the lexicographically smallest equivalent string of baseStr by using the equivalency information from s1 and s2.

Example 1:

Input: s1 = "parker", s2 = "morris", baseStr = "parser"
Output: "makkek"
Explanation: Based on the equivalency information in s1 and s2, we can group their characters as [m,p], [a,o], [k,r,s], [e,i].
The characters in each group are equivalent and sorted in lexicographical order.
So the answer is "makkek".

Example 2:

Input: s1 = "hello", s2 = "world", baseStr = "hold"
Output: "hdld"
Explanation: Based on the equivalency information in s1 and s2, we can group their characters as [h,w], [d,e,o], [l,r].
So only the second letter 'o' in baseStr is changed to 'd', the answer is "hdld".

Example 3:

Input: s1 = "leetcode", s2 = "programs", baseStr = "sourcecode"
Output: "aauaaaaada"
Explanation: We group the equivalent characters in s1 and s2 as [a,o,e,r,s,c], [l,p], [g,t] and [d,m], thus all letters in baseStr except 'u' and 'd' are transformed to 'a', the answer is "aauaaaaada".

Constraints:

• 1 <= s1.length, s2.length, baseStr <= 1000
• s1.length == s2.length
• s1, s2, and baseStr consist of lowercase English letters.

2023-01-15
2421. Number of Good Paths

Topic: Array, Tree, Union Find, Graph
Difficulty: Hard

Problem:
There is a tree (i.e. a connected, undirected graph with no cycles) consisting of n nodes numbered from 0 to n - 1 and exactly n - 1 edges.

You are given a 0-indexed integer array vals of length n where vals[i] denotes the value of the i^th node. You are also given a 2D integer array edges where edges[i] = [a_i, b_i] denotes that there exists an undirected edge connecting nodes a_i and b_i.

A good path is a simple path that satisfies the following conditions:

1. The starting node and the ending node have the same value.
2. All nodes between the starting node and the ending node have values less than or equal to the starting node (i.e. the starting node's value should be the maximum value along the path).

Return the number of distinct good paths.

Note that a path and its reverse are counted as the same path. For example, 0 -> 1 is considered to be the same as 1 -> 0. A single node is also considered as a valid path.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/08/04/f9caaac15b383af9115c5586779dec5.png

Input: vals = [1,3,2,1,3], edges = [[0,1],[0,2],[2,3],[2,4]]
Output: 6
Explanation: There are 5 good paths consisting of a single node.
There is 1 additional good path: 1 -> 0 -> 2 -> 4.
(The reverse path 4 -> 2 -> 0 -> 1 is treated as the same as 1 -> 0 -> 2 -> 4.)
Note that 0 -> 2 -> 3 is not a good path because vals[2] > vals[0].

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/08/04/149d3065ec165a71a1b9aec890776ff.png

Input: vals = [1,1,2,2,3], edges = [[0,1],[1,2],[2,3],[2,4]]
Output: 7
Explanation: There are 5 good paths consisting of a single node.
There are 2 additional good paths: 0 -> 1 and 2 -> 3.

Example 3:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/08/04/31705e22af3d9c0a557459bc7d1b62d.png

Input: vals = [1], edges = []
Output: 1
Explanation: The tree consists of only one node, so there is one good path.

Constraints:

• n == vals.length
• 1 <= n <= 3 * 10^4
• 0 <= vals[i] <= 10^5
• edges.length == n - 1
• edges[i].length == 2
• 0 <= a_i, b_i < n
• a_i != b_i
• edges represents a valid tree.

2023-01-16
57. Insert Interval

Topic: Array
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given an array of non-overlapping intervals intervals where intervals[i] = [start_i, end_i] represent the start and the end of the i^th interval and intervals is sorted in ascending order by start_i. You are also given an interval newInterval = [start, end] that represents the start and end of another interval.

Insert newInterval into intervals such that intervals is still sorted in ascending order by start_i and intervals still does not have any overlapping intervals (merge overlapping intervals if necessary).

Return intervals after the insertion.

Example 1:

Input: intervals = [[1,3],[6,9]], newInterval = [2,5]
Output: [[1,5],[6,9]]

Example 2:

Input: intervals = [[1,2],[3,5],[6,7],[8,10],[12,16]], newInterval = [4,8]
Output: [[1,2],[3,10],[12,16]]
Explanation: Because the new interval [4,8] overlaps with [3,5],[6,7],[8,10].

Constraints:

• 0 <= intervals.length <= 10^4
• intervals[i].length == 2
• 0 <= start_i <= end_i <= 10^5
• intervals is sorted by start_i in ascending order.
• newInterval.length == 2
• 0 <= start <= end <= 10^5

2023-01-17
926. Flip String to Monotone Increasing

Topic: String, Dynamic Programming
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
A binary string is monotone increasing if it consists of some number of 0's (possibly none), followed by some number of 1's (also possibly none).

You are given a binary string s. You can flip s[i] changing it from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0.

Return the minimum number of flips to make s monotone increasing.

Example 1:

Input: s = "00110"
Output: 1
Explanation: We flip the last digit to get 00111.

Example 2:

Input: s = "010110"
Output: 2
Explanation: We flip to get 011111, or alternatively 000111.

Example 3:

Input: s = "00011000"
Output: 2
Explanation: We flip to get 00000000.

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 10^5
• s[i] is either '0' or '1'.

2023-01-18
918. Maximum Sum Circular Subarray

Topic: Array, Divide and Conquer, Dynamic Programming, Queue, Monotonic Queue
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a circular integer array nums of length n, return the maximum possible sum of a non-empty subarray of nums.

A circular array means the end of the array connects to the beginning of the array. Formally, the next element of nums[i] is nums[(i + 1) % n] and the previous element of nums[i] is nums[(i - 1 + n) % n].

A subarray may only include each element of the fixed buffer nums at most once. Formally, for a subarray nums[i], nums[i + 1], ..., nums[j], there does not exist i <= k1, k2 <= j with k1 % n == k2 % n.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,-2,3,-2]
Output: 3
Explanation: Subarray [3] has maximum sum 3.

Example 2:

Input: nums = [5,-3,5]
Output: 10
Explanation: Subarray [5,5] has maximum sum 5 + 5 = 10.

Example 3:

Input: nums = [-3,-2,-3]
Output: -2
Explanation: Subarray [-2] has maximum sum -2.

Constraints:

• n == nums.length
• 1 <= n <= 3 * 10^4
• -3 * 10^4 <= nums[i] <= 3 * 10^4

2023-01-19
974. Subarray Sums Divisible by K

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Prefix Sum
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an integer array nums and an integer k, return the number of non-empty subarrays that have a sum divisible by k.

A subarray is a contiguous part of an array.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,5,0,-2,-3,1], k = 5
Output: 7
Explanation: There are 7 subarrays with a sum divisible by k = 5:
[4, 5, 0, -2, -3, 1], [5], [5, 0], [5, 0, -2, -3], [0], [0, -2, -3], [-2, -3]

Example 2:

Input: nums = [5], k = 9
Output: 0

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 3 * 10^4
• -10^4 <= nums[i] <= 10^4
• 2 <= k <= 10^4

2023-01-20
491. Non-decreasing Subsequences

Topic: Array, Hash Table, Backtracking, Bit Manipulation
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given an integer array nums, return all the different possible non-decreasing subsequences of the given array with at least two elements. You may return the answer in any order.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,6,7,7]
Output: [[4,6],[4,6,7],[4,6,7,7],[4,7],[4,7,7],[6,7],[6,7,7],[7,7]]

Example 2:

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

Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 15
• -100 <= nums[i] <= 100

2023-01-21
93. Restore IP Addresses

Topic: String, Backtracking
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
A valid IP address consists of exactly four integers separated by single dots. Each integer is between 0 and 255 (inclusive) and cannot have leading zeros.

• For example, "0.1.2.201" and "192.168.1.1" are valid IP addresses, but "0.011.255.245", "192.168.1.312" and "192.168@1.1" are invalid IP addresses.

Given a string s containing only digits, return all possible valid IP addresses that can be formed by inserting dots into s. You are not allowed to reorder or remove any digits in s. You may return the valid IP addresses in any order.

Example 1:

Input: s = "25525511135"
Output: ["255.255.11.135","255.255.111.35"]

Example 2:

Input: s = "0000"
Output: ["0.0.0.0"]

Example 3:

Input: s = "101023"
Output: ["1.0.10.23","1.0.102.3","10.1.0.23","10.10.2.3","101.0.2.3"]

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 20
• s consists of digits only.

2023-01-22
131. Palindrome Partitioning

Topic: String, Dynamic Programming, Backtracking
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
Given a string s, partition s such that every substring of the partition is a palindrome. Return all possible palindrome partitioning of s.

Example 1:

Input: s = "aab"
Output: [["a","a","b"],["aa","b"]]

Example 2:

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

Constraints:

• 1 <= s.length <= 16
• s contains only lowercase English letters.

2023-01-23
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.

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

2023-01-24
909. Snakes and Ladders

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

Problem:
You are given an n x n integer matrix board where the cells are labeled from 1 to n^2 in a Boustrophedon style starting from the bottom left of the board (i.e. board[n - 1][0]) and alternating direction each row.

You start on square 1 of the board. In each move, starting from square curr, do the following:

• Choose a destination square next with a label in the range [curr + 1, min(curr + 6, n^2)].
• This choice simulates the result of a standard 6-sided die roll: i.e., there are always at most 6 destinations, regardless of the size of the board.
• If next has a snake or ladder, you must move to the destination of that snake or ladder. Otherwise, you move to next.
• The game ends when you reach the square n^2.

A board square on row r and column c has a snake or ladder if board[r][c] != -1. The destination of that snake or ladder is board[r][c]. Squares 1 and n^2 do not have a snake or ladder.

Note that you only take a snake or ladder at most once per move. If the destination to a snake or ladder is the start of another snake or ladder, you do not follow the subsequent snake or ladder.

• For example, suppose the board is [[-1,4],[-1,3]], and on the first move, your destination square is 2. You follow the ladder to square 3, but do not follow the subsequent ladder to 4.

Return the least number of moves required to reach the square n^2. If it is not possible to reach the square, return -1.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2018/09/23/snakes.png

Input: board = [[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1],[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1],[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1],[-1,35,-1,-1,13,-1],[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1],[-1,15,-1,-1,-1,-1]]
Output: 4
Explanation: 
In the beginning, you start at square 1 (at row 5, column 0).
You decide to move to square 2 and must take the ladder to square 15.
You then decide to move to square 17 and must take the snake to square 13.
You then decide to move to square 14 and must take the ladder to square 35.
You then decide to move to square 36, ending the game.
This is the lowest possible number of moves to reach the last square, so return 4.

Example 2:

Input: board = [[-1,-1],[-1,3]]
Output: 1

Constraints:

• n == board.length == board[i].length
• 2 <= n <= 20
• grid[i][j] is either -1 or in the range [1, n^2].
• The squares labeled 1 and n^2 do not have any ladders or snakes.

2023-01-25
2359. Find Closest Node to Given Two Nodes

Topic: Depth-First Search, Graph
Difficulty: Medium

Problem:
You are given a directed graph of n nodes numbered from 0 to n - 1, where each node has at most one outgoing edge.

The graph is represented with a given 0-indexed array edges of size n, indicating that there is a directed edge from node i to node edges[i]. If there is no outgoing edge from i, then edges[i] == -1.

You are also given two integers node1 and node2.

Return the index of the node that can be reached from both node1 and node2, such that the maximum between the distance from node1 to that node, and from node2 to that node is minimized. If there are multiple answers, return the node with the smallest index, and if no possible answer exists, return -1.

Note that edges may contain cycles.

Example 1:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/06/07/graph4drawio-2.png

Input: edges = [2,2,3,-1], node1 = 0, node2 = 1
Output: 2
Explanation: The distance from node 0 to node 2 is 1, and the distance from node 1 to node 2 is 1.
The maximum of those two distances is 1. It can be proven that we cannot get a node with a smaller maximum distance than 1, so we return node 2.

Example 2:

Image: https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2022/06/07/graph4drawio-4.png

Input: edges = [1,2,-1], node1 = 0, node2 = 2
Output: 2
Explanation: The distance from node 0 to node 2 is 2, and the distance from node 2 to itself is 0.
The maximum of those two distances is 2. It can be proven that we cannot get a node with a smaller maximum distance than 2, so we return node 2.

Constraints:

• n == edges.length
• 2 <= n <= 10^5
• -1 <= edges[i] < n
• edges[i] != i
• 0 <= node1, node2 < n