How to Solve Where Will the Ball Fall Problem
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Where Will the Ball Fall
You have a 2-D grid of size m x n representing a box, and you have n balls. The box is open on the top and bottom sides. Each cell in the box has a diagonal board spanning two corners of the cell that...
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Understanding the Where Will the Ball Fall Problem
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Problem Statement
You have a 2-D grid of size m x n representing a box, and you have n balls. The box is open on the top and bottom sides. Each cell in the box has a diagonal board spanning two corners of the cell that can redirect a ball to the right or to the left. A board that redirects the ball to the right spans the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner and is represented in the grid as 1. A board that redirects the ball to the left spans the top-right corner to the bottom-left corner and is represented in the grid as -1. We drop one ball at the top of each column of the box. Each ball can get stuck in the box or fall out of the bottom. A ball gets stuck if it hits a "V" shaped pattern between two boards or if a board redirects the ball into either wall of the box. Return an array answer of size n where answer[i] is the column that the ball falls out of at the bottom after dropping the ball from the ith column at the top, or -1 if the ball gets stuck in the box.
Where Will the Ball Fall
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Examples
grid = [[1,1,1,-1,-1],[1,1,1,-1,-1],[-1,-1,-1,1,1],[1,1,1,1,-1],[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1]][1,-1,-1,-1,-1]This example is shown in the photo. Ball b0 is dropped at column 0 and falls out of the box at column 1. Ball b1 is dropped at column 1 and will get stuck in the box between column 2 and 3 and row 1. Ball b2 is dropped at column 2 and will get stuck on the box between column 2 and 3 and row 0. Ball b3 is dropped at column 3 and will get stuck on the box between column 2 and 3 and row 0. Ball b4 is dropped at column 4 and will get stuck on the box between column 2 and 3 and row 1.
grid = [[-1]][-1]The ball gets stuck against the left wall.
grid = [[1,1,1,1,1,1],[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1],[1,1,1,1,1,1],[-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1]][0,1,2,3,4,-1]Constraints
m == grid.lengthn == grid[i].length1 <= m, n <= 100grid[i][j] is 1 or -1.How Interview Coder Helps with Leetcode Problems
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