As part of my daily Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) practice, today I focused on solving three LeetCode problems that strengthened my understanding of arrays, string manipulation, and greedy algorithms.
Consistent practice is helping me improve my problem-solving skills and prepare for coding interviews.
📌 Problems Solved
1. Monotonic Array (LeetCode 896)
Concept: Arrays
The goal was to determine whether an array is entirely non-decreasing or non-increasing.
What I Learned
- How to identify increasing and decreasing trends in a single traversal.
- Why checking both possibilities simultaneously leads to an efficient solution.
- Time Complexity: O(n)
- Space Complexity: O(1)
2. String Compression (LeetCode 443)
Concept: Two Pointers, Strings
This problem required compressing a character array in-place without using extra memory.
What I Learned
- Applying the Two Pointers technique for reading and writing.
- Performing in-place modifications efficiently.
- Handling multi-digit counts correctly during compression.
- Time Complexity: O(n)
- Space Complexity: O(1)
3. Jump Game II (LeetCode 45)
Concept: Greedy Algorithm
The challenge was to find the minimum number of jumps needed to reach the last index.
What I Learned
- How greedy algorithms can produce optimal solutions.
- Tracking the farthest reachable position while minimizing jumps.
- Understanding why greedy outperforms brute-force approaches for this problem.
- Time Complexity: O(n)
- Space Complexity: O(1)
💡 Key Takeaways
Today's practice reinforced several important concepts:
- Efficient array traversal techniques.
- In-place string manipulation using Two Pointers.
- Solving optimization problems with Greedy Algorithms.
- Writing clean, optimized Python code with linear time complexity whenever possible.
The more problems I solve, the better I become at recognizing patterns and selecting the right algorithmic approach.
🎯 Next Goal
I'm committed to solving LeetCode problems every day to strengthen my fundamentals in Data Structures & Algorithms and become a better software engineer.
If you're also practicing DSA, I'd love to hear about your favorite problem-solving strategies or discuss different approaches in the comments.
Happy Coding! 🚀
🏷️ Tags
#leetcode #python #algorithms #datastructures
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