Hello Everyone!
The final day of Week 10 was all about combining Arrays and Two-Pointer Techniques, focusing on efficient manipulation and organization of elements. These tasks challenged me to optimize operations while maintaining clarity and precision. It felt like organizing a messy room where every move counted.
How the Day Played Out
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String Compression (Medium Difficulty)
- Compress a string by replacing consecutive repeating characters with the character followed by its count, modifying the string in place.
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The Strategy:
- Used two pointers:
- One pointer (
write) to write compressed characters. - Another pointer (
read) to traverse the string and count consecutive characters. - Built the compressed string by appending the character and its count if greater than 1.
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The Fun Part:
- Watching the string transform step by step into its compressed form felt like solving a live optimization challenge.
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Move Zeroes (Easy Difficulty)
- Rearrange an array to move all
0s to the end while maintaining the relative order of the non-zero elements. -
The Strategy:
- Used a two-pointer approach:
- One pointer to track the position of the next non-zero element.
- The other pointer to traverse the array, swapping non-zero elements to their correct position.
- Ensured an in-place solution with minimal extra space.
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The Fun Part:
- Watching the zeros shift seamlessly to the end felt like organizing a cluttered shelf into neat sections.
- Rearrange an array to move all
What Made Today Special
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Two-Pointer Precision:
- Both problems showcased how two-pointer techniques optimize operations on arrays and strings.
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In-Place Modifications:
- Modifying the input directly without using additional memory highlighted the importance of space-efficient solutions.
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Visualizing Progress:
- Tracking the pointers and observing the array or string evolve step by step made the process intuitive and satisfying.
Key Takeaways
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Two Pointers for Efficiency:
- Problems like Move Zeroes demonstrate how two-pointer techniques reduce unnecessary operations and simplify logic.
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In-Place Operations Matter:
- Modifying data in place, as in String Compression, highlights the importance of efficient memory usage in real-world scenarios.
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Break It Down:
- Both tasks benefited from dividing the solution into clear, manageable steps, ensuring accuracy and simplicity.
Reflections
The String Compression problem tested my ability to combine traversal and modification efficiently, while Move Zeroes reinforced the power of two-pointer techniques for reorganization tasks. Together, these challenges wrapped up Week 10 with a satisfying balance of logic, precision, and optimization.
What’s Next?
With Week 10 complete, I’m excited to plan Week 11, which will focus on Dynamic Programming, Advanced Greedy Algorithms, and Backtracking Problems. The upcoming week promises to bring more complex and engaging challenges.
Thank you for following along! Let’s keep solving, learning, and improving together.
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