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I’m sure you got groovy with this problem yesterday,
As I mentioned, this is a question that requires some level of insight and implementation to solve. The concurrent nature of the rotting oranges (multiple oranges rotting at the same time) often overwhelms people if not handled correctly.
This problem can be found as problem 994. Rotting Oranges on Leetcode.
Problem
You are given an m x n
grid
where each cell can have one of three values:
0
representing an empty cell,1
representing a fresh orange, or2
representing a rotten orange.
Every minute, any fresh orange that is 4-directionally adjacent to a rotten orange becomes rotten.
Return the minimum number of minutes that must elapse until no cell has a fresh orange. If this is impossible, return -1
.
Example 1:
Input: grid = [[2,1,1],[1,1,0],[0,1,1]]
Output: 4
Example 2:
Input: grid = [[2,1,1],[0,1,1],[1,0,1]]
Output: -1
Explanation: The orange in the bottom left corner (row 2, column 0) is never rotten, because rotting only happens 4-directionally.
Example 3:
Input: grid = [[0,2]]
Output: 0
Explanation: Since there are already no fresh oranges at minute 0, the answer is just 0.
Constraints:
m == grid.length
n == grid[i].length
1 <= m, n <= 10
grid[i][j]
is0
,1
, or2
.
You can test your solution here
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Step 1: Understanding the setup
While it can be tempting to jump straight into a problem it’s better to take a step back and look over it. This helps you solve everything in a smooth and organized manner, which is crucial to impressing your interviewers. Remember, your interviewers are testing your communication and problem solving as much as they are testing your coding. Well-organized communication allows you to emphasize your strength and knowledge effectively.
When it comes to this question, we have already noticed one salient feature- the simultaneously rotting oranges. Let’s attack that first to see if we can find any useful hints on how to proceed.
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