1368. Minimum Cost to Make at Least One Valid Path in a Grid

Given an m x n grid. Each cell of the grid has a sign pointing to the next cell you should visit if you are currently in this cell. The sign of grid[i][j] can be:

• 1 which means go to the cell to the right. (i.e go from grid[i][j] to grid[i][j + 1])
• 2 which means go to the cell to the left. (i.e go from grid[i][j] to grid[i][j - 1])
• 3 which means go to the lower cell. (i.e go from grid[i][j] to grid[i + 1][j])
• 4 which means go to the upper cell. (i.e go from grid[i][j] to grid[i - 1][j])

Notice that there could be some signs on the cells of the grid that point outside the grid.

You will initially start at the upper left cell (0, 0). A valid path in the grid is a path that starts from the upper left cell (0, 0) and ends at the bottom-right cell (m - 1, n - 1) following the signs on the grid. The valid path does not have to be the shortest.

You can modify the sign on a cell with cost = 1. You can modify the sign on a cell one time only.

Return the minimum cost to make the grid have at least one valid path.

1168. Optimize Water Distribution in a Village

There are n houses in a village. We want to supply water for all the houses by building wells and laying pipes.

For each house i, we can either build a well inside it directly with cost wells[i - 1] (note the -1 due to 0-indexing), or pipe in water from another well to it. The costs to lay pipes between houses are given by the array pipes where each pipes[j] = [house1j, house2j, costj] represents the cost to connect house1j and house2j together using a pipe. Connections are bidirectional, and there could be multiple valid connections between the same two houses with different costs.

Return the minimum total cost to supply water to all houses.

269. Alien Dictionary

There is a new alien language that uses the English alphabet. However, the order among the letters is unknown to you.

You are given a list of strings words from the alien language’s dictionary, where the strings in words are sorted lexicographically by the rules of this new language.

Return a string of the unique letters in the new alien language sorted in lexicographically increasing order by the new language’s rules. If there is no solution, return “”. If there are multiple solutions, return any of them.

A string s is lexicographically smaller than a string t if at the first letter where they differ, the letter in s comes before the letter in t in the alien language. If the first min(s.length, t.length) letters are the same, then s is smaller if and only if s.length < t.length.

317. Shortest Distance from All Buildings

You are given an m x n grid grid of values 0, 1, or 2, where:

• each 0 marks an empty land that you can pass by freely,
• each 1 marks a building that you cannot pass through, and
• each 2 marks an obstacle that you cannot pass through.

You want to build a house on an empty land that reaches all buildings in the shortest total travel distance. You can only move up, down, left, and right.

Return the shortest travel distance for such a house. If it is not possible to build such a house according to the above rules, return -1.

The total travel distance is the sum of the distances between the houses of the friends and the meeting point.

The distance is calculated using Manhattan Distance, where distance(p1, p2) = |p2.x - p1.x| + |p2.y - p1.y|.

801. Minimum Swaps To Make Sequences Increasing

You are given two integer arrays of the same length nums1 and nums2. In one operation, you are allowed to swap nums1[i] with nums2[i].

For example, if nums1 = [1,2,3,8], and nums2 = [5,6,7,4], you can swap the element at i = 3 to obtain nums1 = [1,2,3,4] and nums2 = [5,6,7,8].
Return the minimum number of needed operations to make nums1 and nums2 strictly increasing. The test cases are generated so that the given input always makes it possible.

An array arr is strictly increasing if and only if arr[0] < arr[1] < arr[2] < … < arr[arr.length - 1].

403. Frog Jump

A frog is crossing a river. The river is divided into some number of units, and at each unit, there may or may not exist a stone. The frog can jump on a stone, but it must not jump into the water.

Given a list of stones’ positions (in units) in sorted ascending order, determine if the frog can cross the river by landing on the last stone. Initially, the frog is on the first stone and assumes the first jump must be 1 unit.

If the frog’s last jump was k units, its next jump must be either k - 1, k, or k + 1 units. The frog can only jump in the forward direction.

425. Word Squares

Given an array of unique strings words, return all the word squares you can build from words. The same word from words can be used multiple times. You can return the answer in any order.

A sequence of strings forms a valid word square if the kth row and column read the same string, where 0 <= k < max(numRows, numColumns).

• For example, the word sequence [“ball”,”area”,”lead”,”lady”] forms a word square because each word reads the same both horizontally and vertically.

296. Best Meeting Point

Given an m x n binary grid grid where each 1 marks the home of one friend, return the minimal total travel distance.

The total travel distance is the sum of the distances between the houses of the friends and the meeting point.

The distance is calculated using Manhattan Distance, where distance(p1, p2) = |p2.x - p1.x| + |p2.y - p1.y|.

1499. Max Value of Equation

You are given an array points containing the coordinates of points on a 2D plane, sorted by the x-values, where points[i] = [xi, yi] such that xi < xj for all 1 <= i < j <= points.length. You are also given an integer k.

Return the maximum value of the equation yi + yj + |xi - xj| where |xi - xj| <= k and 1 <= i < j <= points.length.

It is guaranteed that there exists at least one pair of points that satisfy the constraint |xi - xj| <= k.

913. Cat and Mouse

A game on an undirected graph is played by two players, Mouse and Cat, who alternate turns.

The graph is given as follows: graph[a] is a list of all nodes b such that ab is an edge of the graph.

The mouse starts at node 1 and goes first, the cat starts at node 2 and goes second, and there is a hole at node 0.

During each player’s turn, they must travel along one edge of the graph that meets where they are. For example, if the Mouse is at node 1, it must travel to any node in graph[1].

Additionally, it is not allowed for the Cat to travel to the Hole (node 0.)

Then, the game can end in three ways:

• If ever the Cat occupies the same node as the Mouse, the Cat wins.
• If ever the Mouse reaches the Hole, the Mouse wins.
• If ever a position is repeated (i.e., the players are in the same position as a previous turn, and it is the same player’s turn to move), the game is a draw.

Given a graph, and assuming both players play optimally, return

• 1 if the mouse wins the game,
• 2 if the cat wins the game, or
• 0 if the game is a draw.