Number of Provinces
You can find the number of provinces by identifying connected components in the graph. You can use Depth First Search (DFS) or Union-Find to achieve this.
Depth First Search (DFS) Approach
Here’s a code snippet that uses DFS to find the number of provinces:
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Explanation
- Initialization: Initialize a visited array with
False
to keep track of cities that have been visited. - DFS Function: The
dfs
function is defined to traverse through the connected cities. It visits a city and recursively calls itself for all its neighbors if they are not visited. - Counting Provinces: Iterate through all the cities. If a city is not visited, call the
dfs
function starting from that city, and increment the provinces counter. - Return Result: Finally, return the total number of provinces.
The time complexity of this approach is O(N^2), where N is the number of cities. In the worst case, we might need to visit all the pairs of cities. The space complexity is O(N) due to the visited array and recursive stack.
Problem Definition
Define the Terms
A province is a group of directly or indirectly connected cities and no other cities outside of the group.
(i, j) are the vertices, we can lookup in the adjacency matrix if they are connected or not.
0 1 2 0 [1,1,0] 1 [1,1,0] 2 [0,0,1]
Province: Component
Transform the given problem into an abstract problem. We can reframe the question:
- How many components are there in the graph?
Ex2: Three vertices, no connections Number of components = 3 You can generalize this to 200 vertices.
Ex1: Three vertices, one connection Number of components = 2
Ex1’: Four vertices, one connection Number of components = 3
Ex3: Three vertices, two connections Number of components = 1
Ex4: Three vertices, three connections Number of components = 1
Define the Interface
Input: array of arrays (adjacency matrix)
Output: integer
Identify Implicit Inputs
Define the Goal
Return the total number of provinces.
Identify the Constraints
Constraints:
1 <= n <= 200 n == isConnected.length n == isConnected[i].length isConnected[i][j] is 1 or 0. isConnected[i][i] == 1 isConnected[i][j] == isConnected[j][i]
Determine the Scope
- List assumptions
- Define boundaries of the problem
Search the Problem Space
- Look for clues in the problem statement
Classify the Problem
Decontextualize the Problem
Can you think of this problem in a different way?
Can you reframe it?
Problem Representation
Analyze the Input and Output
Analyze the Examples
Solve the Problem by Hand
Recognize the Pattern
Identify the Invariants
Brainstorm Solutions
Brute Force Approach
0 1 2 0 [1,1,0] 1 [1,1,0] 2 [0,0,1]
Start traversal from 1, you can reach 2. visited = [1, 1, 0] 0, 1, 2
We again start traversal from 3 and traverse all the nodes we have not visited already.
We needed to run the traversal twice. Number of components.
Iterate over all the nodes starting from node 1 mark it as visited
Worst case, we traverse every edge. The number of edges is equal to the number of vertices.
DFS BFS
T: O() S: O()
Shortcomings
Evaluate and Select Approach
Analyze Time and Space Complexity
- Time: O( )
- Space: O( )
Outline the Solution
Key Takeaways
Reflect
What went right?
What went wrong?
What can we improve next time?
We start the dfs from index start. When do we stop the dfs? Stop the DFS when we have no more edges to follow.
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Identifying Problem Isomorphism
“Number of Provinces” is similar to a group of problems that solve “connected components” in an undirected graph using depth-first search (DFS), breadth-first search (BFS), or union-find algorithm.
A simpler problem than this is “Find the Town Judge”. In this problem, you are given trust relations between people in a town and need to find the town judge. It is simpler because it essentially boils down to finding a node with N-1 inward connections and zero outward connections, which can be solved using an array to track the number of trusts.
A more complex problem is “Critical Connections in a Network”. This problem is about finding all the critical connections in the network. A connection is critical if removing it will make some servers unable to reach some other servers. This problem is more complex because it requires an understanding of Tarjan’s algorithm, which is used to find articulation points in a graph.
The reasoning behind these choices:
“Find the Town Judge” involves understanding the relationships between different nodes (people in this case), similar to understanding the friendship relationships in “Number of Provinces”. However, the structure of the problem is simpler because you just need to track the number of trusts, while in “Number of Provinces” you need to identify separate groups (provinces) of friends.
“Critical Connections in a Network” involves identifying connected components in a network, like “Number of Provinces”. However, the “Critical Connections” problem requires a deeper understanding of graph algorithms to identify the critical connections that, if removed, would disconnect the network.
Thus, the order of problems from simpler to more complex, based on graph theory:
- “Find the Town Judge”
- “Number of Provinces”
- “Critical Connections in a Network”
This mapping is approximate. While these problems share the common concept of relationships between nodes in a graph, the exact constraints and specifics vary, affecting the implementation of the solution.
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Problem Classification
Graph Traversal
Language Agnostic Coding Drills
This is a depth-first search (DFS) problem in a graph, where each person is considered as a node. If person A knows person B, we draw an edge between nodes A and B. The main goal of the problem is to find the number of isolated groups. Here is the breakdown:
Working with 2D Lists (Matrix): Understand how to declare a 2D list, and how to access elements within it. Write a simple nested loop to iterate through a 2D list.
Understanding Boolean Values and Lists: Learn how to create a list of boolean values and manipulate those values.
Implementing Depth-First Search (DFS): Understand the concept of depth-first search (DFS), how it traverses through a graph, and write a simple DFS algorithm for a given graph.
Nested Function Calls: Understanding how nested function calls work and their scope.
Working with Graphs: Understand the basics of a graph data structure, how nodes are connected, and how to traverse them.
Defining Classes and Methods: Practice creating a class and defining methods within it.
Targeted Drills in Python
Working with 2D Lists (Matrix):
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# Declare a 2D list matrix = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]] # Print each element of the 2D list for row in matrix: for elem in row: print(elem)
Understanding Boolean Values and Lists:
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# Declare a list with boolean values bool_list = [False, True, False, True] # Change the value of the second element to False bool_list[1] = False print(bool_list) # Output: [False, False, False, True]
Implementing Depth-First Search (DFS):
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graph = {'A': ['B', 'C'], 'B': ['A', 'D', 'E'], 'C': ['A', 'F'], 'D': ['B'], 'E': ['B', 'F'], 'F': ['C', 'E']} visited = set() def dfs(visited, graph, node): if node not in visited: print (node) visited.add(node) for neighbour in graph[node]: dfs(visited, graph, neighbour) dfs(visited, graph, 'A') # Output: 'A' 'B' 'D' 'E' 'F' 'C'
Nested Function Calls:
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def outer_function(x): def inner_function(y): return y + 1 return inner_function(x) * 2 print(outer_function(3)) # Output: 8
Working with Graphs:
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graph = {'A': ['B', 'C'], 'B': ['A', 'D', 'E'], 'C': ['A', 'F'], 'D': ['B'], 'E': ['B', 'F'], 'F': ['C', 'E']} # Print each node and its neighbours for node in graph: print(node, ":", graph[node])
Defining Classes and Methods:
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class MyClass: def my_method(self, x): return x * 2 obj = MyClass() print(obj.my_method(3)) # Output: 6