Count Good Numbers with Binary Exponentiation DSA Challenge

🔥 DSA Challenge – Day 131/360 🚀 📌 Topic: Backtracking / Recursion 🧩 Problem: N-Queens Problem Statement: Place N queens on an N×N chessboard such that no two queens attack each other. 🔍 Example: Input: n = 4 Output: [[".Q..","...Q","Q...","..Q."], ["..Q.","Q...","...Q",".Q.."]] 💡 Approach: Optimized Backtracking (Hashing) 1️⃣ Step 1 – Try placing a queen column by column 2️⃣ Step 2 – Use arrays to check if row & diagonals are safe in O(1) 3️⃣ Step 3 – Place queen → recurse → backtrack if needed ⏱ Complexity: Time: O(N!) Space: O(N) + recursion stack 📚 Key Learning: Using hashing for rows & diagonals avoids repeated checks and makes backtracking much faster ⚡ #DSA #Java #Coding #InterviewPrep #ProblemSolving #TechJourney #131DaysOfCode #LeetCode

🔥 DSA Challenge – Day 119/360 🚀 📌 Topic: Recursion / Math 🧩 Problem: Pow(x, n) Problem Statement: Find x raised to the power n (xⁿ) efficiently, even for large values of n. 🔍 Example: Input: x = 2, n = 5 Output: 32 💡 Approach: Optimized (Binary Exponentiation) 1️⃣ Step 1 – If n is negative, convert → x = 1/x and n = -n 2️⃣ Step 2 – Recursively calculate half = power(x, n/2) 3️⃣ Step 3 – • If n is even → return half × half • If n is odd → return half × half × x ⏱ Complexity: Time: O(log n) Space: O(log n) 📚 Key Learning: Breaking a problem into halves can drastically improve performance 🚀 #DSA #Java #Coding #InterviewPrep #ProblemSolving #TechJourney #119DaysOfCode #LeetCode

🔥 DSA Challenge – Day 127/360 🚀 📌 Topic: Backtracking 🧩 Problem: Subsets II Problem Statement: Given an integer array that may contain duplicates, return all possible subsets such that the solution set does not contain duplicate subsets. 🔍 Example: Input: nums = [1,2,2] Output: [[], [1], [1,2], [1,2,2], [2], [2,2]] 💡 Approach: Backtracking + Sorting 1️⃣ Step 1 – Sort the array to group duplicate elements together 2️⃣ Step 2 – Use recursion to generate all subsets 3️⃣ Step 3 – Skip duplicate elements using condition (i != ind && nums[i] == nums[i-1]) ⏱ Complexity: Time: O(2^n) Space: O(n) (recursion stack + subset storage) 📚 Key Learning: Sorting + smart skipping of duplicates helps avoid repeated subsets in backtracking problems. #DSA #Java #Coding #InterviewPrep #ProblemSolving #TechJourney #360DaysOfCode #LeetCode #Backtracking

#CodeEveryday — My DSA Journey | Day 4 🧩 Problem Solved: Word Search (LeetCode #79) 💭 What I Learned: Used DFS + backtracking to search for a word in a 2D grid by exploring all possible paths. At each step: ✔️ Checked boundary conditions and character match ✔️ Explored all 4 directions (up, down, left, right) ✔️ Marked the current cell as visited to avoid revisiting ✔️ Backtracked by unmarking the cell after exploration Ensured correctness by stopping early when a mismatch occurs or when the full word is found. This strengthened my understanding of grid traversal with constraints and path tracking. ⏱ Time Complexity: O(m × n × 4^L) (L = length of word) 🧠 Space Complexity: O(L) (recursion stack) ⚡ Key Takeaways: ✔️ Backtracking is essential for path-based problems in grids ✔️ Marking visited cells prevents cycles ✔️ Early stopping improves performance significantly 💻 Language Used: Java ☕ 📘 Concepts: DFS · Backtracking · Matrix Traversal · Recursion #CodeEveryday #DSA #LeetCode #Java #Backtracking #DFS #ProblemSolving #Algorithms #CodingJourney #Consistency 🚀

Day 39 #SDE Problems on mathematical optimization and dynamic programming on strings. Solved: • Count Good Numbers • Word Break Key Learning: • “Count Good Numbers” uses fast exponentiation (binary exponentiation) to efficiently compute large powers under modulo. • “Word Break” is a classic DP problem, where we check if a string can be segmented using a dictionary — reinforcing recursion + memoization patterns. #LeetCode #DSA #DynamicProgramming #Recursion #Algorithms #Java #SoftwareEngineering

🔥 DSA Challenge – Day 130/360 🚀 📌 Topic: Backtracking / DFS on Grid 🧩 Problem: Word Search Problem Statement: Given a 2D grid of characters and a word, check if the word exists by moving in 4 directions (no cell reuse). 🔍 Example: Input: board = [["A","B","C","E"],["S","F","C","S"],["A","D","E","E"]] word = "ABCCED" Output: true 💡 Approach: Backtracking + DFS 1️⃣ Step 1 – Start from every cell matching the first character 2️⃣ Step 2 – Explore 4 directions (up, down, left, right) recursively 3️⃣ Step 3 – Mark visited cells and backtrack after exploring ✔️ Avoid revisiting the same cell ✔️ Stop early when characters don’t match ✔️ Return true as soon as full word is found ⏱ Complexity: Time: O(N * M * 4^L) Space: O(L) (recursion stack) 📚 Key Learning: Backtracking is powerful for exploring all possible paths while avoiding invalid ones using pruning. #DSA #Java #Coding #InterviewPrep #ProblemSolving #TechJourney #130DaysOfCode #LeetCode #Backtracking

🔥 DSA Challenge – Day 125/360 🚀 📌 Topic: Recursion 🧩 Problem: Combination Sum Problem Statement: Given an array of distinct integers and a target, return all unique combinations where numbers sum up to the target. Same element can be used multiple times. 🔍 Example: Input: candidates = [2,3,6,7], target = 7 Output: [[2,2,3],[7]] 💡 Approach: Backtracking 1️⃣ Step 1 – Start from index 0 and try picking each element 2️⃣ Step 2 – If element ≤ target, include it and reduce target 3️⃣ Step 3 – Backtrack (remove element) and move to next index ✔ Use recursion to explore all possibilities ✔ Reuse same element (stay on same index) ✔ Stop when target becomes 0 (valid answer) ✔ Skip when index reaches end ⏱ Complexity: Time: O(2^n * k) (k = avg length of combination) Space: O(k * x) (x = number of combinations) 📚 Key Learning: Backtracking is all about making choices, exploring, and undoing them efficiently. #DSA #Java #Coding #InterviewPrep #ProblemSolving #TechJourney #360DaysOfCode #LeetCode #Backtracking 🚀

Wow! That's maths. Impressive question. Had fun solving it. The problem asks for the minimum operations to make all elements in a 2D grid equal by adding or subtracting a given integer x. At first glance, you might think about finding the average of all the numbers. However, the mathematical trick to minimize absolute differences is actually to target the median. My Approach: Flatten & Sort: I converted the 2D grid into a 1D array and sorted it to easily find the median values. The Window Check: To be absolutely safe, my code checks a small window of elements right around the median (((m * n) / 2) - 2 to + 2). Modulo Validation: If the absolute difference between an element and the target isn't perfectly divisible by x (val % x != 0), it's mathematically impossible, so we break and return -1. Happy to get this one Accepted! #LeetCode #Java #Algorithms #ProblemSolving #DataStructures #CompetitiveProgramming

🚀 DSA Preparation 💪 Solved a basic yet important Array + Two Pointer problem. Focused on rearranging elements by grouping even and odd numbers efficiently. Great for improving in-place operations and partitioning logic 🔥 🧠 Problem 🔎 Sort Array By Parity Given an integer array nums, move all even integers to the beginning followed by all odd integers. 👉 Return any array that satisfies this condition. Example Input: nums = [3,1,2,4] Output: [2,4,3,1] Input: nums = [0] Output: [0] ⚡ Key Learning 📌 Use two pointers / partition approach 📌 Efficiently rearrange elements in one pass 📌 Time Complexity: O(n) → traverse the array once 📌 Space Complexity: O(1) → in-place rearrangement (no extra space) Improving DSA with strong fundamentals 🚀 #DSA #LeetCode #Arrays #TwoPointers #Java #ProblemSolving #Consistency

🔥 DSA Challenge – Day 137/360 🚀 📌 Topic: Bit Manipulation / Math 🧩 Problem: Divide Two Integers Problem Statement: Divide two integers without using multiplication, division, and mod operator. Return the quotient truncated toward zero. 🔍 Example: Input: dividend = 10, divisor = 3 Output: 3 💡 Approach: Optimized (Bit Manipulation) 1️⃣ Step 1 – Convert both numbers to long and take absolute values to avoid overflow 2️⃣ Step 2 – Use left shift (<<) to find the largest multiple of divisor 3️⃣ Step 3 – Subtract and accumulate result, then apply correct sign ⏱ Complexity: Time: O(log N) Space: O(1) 📚 Key Learning: Using bit manipulation (left shift) can significantly optimize repeated subtraction problems and avoid time limit issues. #DSA #Java #Coding #InterviewPrep #ProblemSolving #TechJourney #137DaysOfCode #LeetCode #BitManipulation