Binary Search in Rotated Sorted Array on LeetCode

🚀 #100DaysOfCode – Day 12 Solved Search in Rotated Sorted Array II on LeetCode 🔄🔍 🧠 Key insight: When duplicates are present, it’s not always possible to directly identify the sorted half. If nums[left] == nums[mid], we can safely move left++ to reduce the search space and continue. ⚙️ Approach: 🔹Use modified binary search 🔹Handle duplicates by skipping equal boundary elements 🔹Identify the sorted half 🔹Check if the target lies in that range and adjust pointers accordingly ⏱️ Time Complexity: Average: O(log n) Worst case (many duplicates): O(n) 📦 Space Complexity: O(1) #100DaysOfCode #LeetCode #DSA #BinarySearch #Java #ProblemSolving #LearningInPublic #CodingJourney

🚀 Day 22 of #100DaysOfCode Solved 34. Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array on LeetCode 🔍 🧠 Key insight: To find both boundaries of a target in a sorted array, a single binary search isn’t enough. Running two binary searches—one for the leftmost and one for the rightmost occurrence—gives an optimal solution. ⚙️ Approach: 🔹Perform a binary search to find the first occurrence 🔹Perform another binary search to find the last occurrence 🔹Adjust search boundaries after finding the target to expand left/right ⏱️ Time Complexity: O(log n) 📦 Space Complexity: O(1) #100DaysOfCode #LeetCode #DSA #BinarySearch #Java #ProblemSolving #LearningInPublic #CodingJourney

🚀 Day 39 of #100DaysOfCode Solved 80. Remove Duplicates from Sorted Array II on LeetCode 🔢 🧠 Key Insight: The array is already sorted, and we need to ensure that each element appears at most twice, modifying the array in-place. ⚙️ Approach: 🔹Maintain a pointer i representing the position to place the next valid element 🔹Start iterating from index 2 🔹For each element nums[j], compare it with nums[i] 🔹If they are different, place the element at nums[i + 2] and move the pointer forward This ensures that no element appears more than twice while maintaining the sorted order. ⏱️ Time Complexity: O(n) 📦 Space Complexity: O(1) #100DaysOfCode #LeetCode #DSA #Arrays #TwoPointers #Java #ProblemSolving #InterviewPrep #LearningInPublic

🚀 Day 38 of #100DaysOfCode Solved 154. Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array II on LeetCode 🔍 🧠 Key Insight: The array is sorted but rotated, and this version introduces duplicates, which makes the binary search logic slightly trickier. ⚙️ Approach: 🔹Use binary search with left and right pointers 🔹Compare nums[mid] with nums[right]: 🔹If nums[mid] > nums[right] → minimum lies in the right half 🔹If nums[mid] < nums[right] → minimum lies in the left half (including mid) 🔹If equal → safely shrink the search space by decrementing right This handles the ambiguity caused by duplicates. ⏱️ Time Complexity: Average: O(log n) Worst case: O(n) (when many duplicates exist) 📦 Space Complexity: O(1) #100DaysOfCode #LeetCode #DSA #BinarySearch #Arrays #Java #ProblemSolving #InterviewPrep #LearningInPublic

🚀 Day 82 of #100DaysOfCode 🔍 Problem Solved: Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array Today I worked on a binary search based problem where we need to find the minimum element in a rotated sorted array in O(log n) time. 💡 Key Insight: If the array is already sorted (nums[low] <= nums[high]), then the first element is the minimum. Otherwise: If left half is sorted → minimum must be in right half If right half is unsorted → minimum lies there By carefully adjusting low and high, we narrow down the search space efficiently. 🧠 What I practiced: Modified Binary Search Identifying sorted halves Avoiding unnecessary comparisons #Java #DSA #BinarySearch #LeetCode #ProblemSolving #CodingJourney

🚀 Day 88- #100DaysOfCode Today I solved Peak Index in a Mountain Array using Binary Search. 🔹 Problem Idea A mountain array increases strictly and then decreases. The goal is to find the index of the peak element. 🔹 Approach Used: Binary Search Instead of checking every element (O(n)), we can use the mountain property: • If arr[mid] > arr[mid+1] → we are in the descending part, so the peak lies on the left side. • Otherwise → we are in the ascending part, so move to the right side. This helps us find the peak in O(log n) time. 📊 Time Complexity: O(log n) 📦 Space Complexity: O(1) #DSA #Java #BinarySearch #LeetCode #CodingJourney #ProblemSolving #100DaysOfCode

Day 27/100 – LeetCode Challenge 🚀 Problem: Sort List Approach: Applied Merge Sort on the linked list Used slow and fast pointers to find the middle Recursively sorted both halves Merged the sorted halves Time Complexity: O(n log n) Space Complexity: O(log n) (recursion stack) Key takeaway: Merge sort is the most efficient sorting technique for linked lists, as it avoids random-access operations required by other algorithms. #LeetCode #100DaysOfCode #DSA #Java #LinkedList #MergeSort #ProblemSolving

🚀 Day 24 of #100DaysOfCode Solved 167. Two Sum II – Input Array Is Sorted on LeetCode 🔢👉👈 🧠 Key insight: Because the array is already sorted, we can avoid hash maps and use a two-pointer approach to find the target sum efficiently. ⚙️ Approach: 🔹Initialize two pointers at the start and end of the array 🔹Calculate the sum of values at both pointers 🔹If the sum is too large → move the right pointer left 🔹If the sum is too small → move the left pointer right 🔹Stop when the target is found ⏱️ Time Complexity: O(n) 📦 Space Complexity: O(1) #100DaysOfCode #LeetCode #DSA #TwoPointers #Java #ProblemSolving #LearningInPublic #CodingJourney

Day 23 – Find First and Last Position in Sorted Array Solved this Binary Search problem by finding the first and last occurrence of a target in a sorted array with O(log n) complexity. Key Learnings: Applying binary search twice for boundary detection Adjusting search space using left and right updates Writing overflow-safe mid calculation A great exercise in mastering binary search variations. #DSA #BinarySearch #Java #LeetCode #InterviewPrep

Day 23 - Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array Technique Used: Modified Binary Search Key Idea: Since the array is rotated but originally sorted, used binary search to identify the pivot (minimum element). Compared mid with end to determine which half is unsorted and adjusted boundaries accordingly. Time Complexity: O(log n) #Day23 #LeetCode #Java #BinarySearch #DSA #Algorithms