You are given a string num representing a large integer. An integer is good if it meets the following conditions:

• It is a substring of num with length 3.
• It consists of only one unique digit.

Return the maximum good integer as a string or an empty string "" if no such integer exists.

Note:

• substring is a contiguous sequence of characters within a string.
• There may be leading zeroes in num or a good integer.

Example 1:

Input: num = "6777133339"
Output: "777"
Explanation: There are two distinct good integers: "777" and "333".
"777" is the largest, so we return "777".


Example 2:

Input: num = "2300019"
Output: "000"
Explanation: "000" is the only good integer.


Example 3:

Input: num = "42352338"
Output: ""
Explanation: No substring of length 3 consists of only one unique digit. Therefore, there are no good integers.


Constraints:

• 3 <= num.length <= 1000
• num only consists of digits.

Solution:

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

You are given an integer array cards where cards[i] represents the value of the ith card. A pair of cards are matching if the cards have the same value.

Return the minimum number of consecutive cards you have to pick up to have a pair of matching cards among the picked cards. If it is impossible to have matching cards, return -1.

Example 1:

Input: cards = [3,4,2,3,4,7]
Output: 4
Explanation: We can pick up the cards [3,4,2,3] which contain a matching pair of cards with value 3. Note that picking up the cards [4,2,3,4] is also optimal.


Example 2:

Input: cards = [1,0,5,3]
Output: -1
Explanation: There is no way to pick up a set of consecutive cards that contain a pair of matching cards.


Constraints:

• 1 <= cards.length <= 105
• 0 <= cards[i] <= 106

## Solution: Hashtable

Record the last position of each number,
ans = min{cardi – last[cardi]}

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(n)

## C++

You are given a string number representing a positive integer and a character digit.

Return the resulting string after removing exactly one occurrence of digit from number such that the value of the resulting string in decimal form is maximized. The test cases are generated such that digit occurs at least once in number.

Example 1:

Input: number = "123", digit = "3"
Output: "12"
Explanation: There is only one '3' in "123". After removing '3', the result is "12".


Example 2:

Input: number = "1231", digit = "1"
Output: "231"
Explanation: We can remove the first '1' to get "231" or remove the second '1' to get "123".
Since 231 > 123, we return "231".


Example 3:

Input: number = "551", digit = "5"
Output: "51"
Explanation: We can remove either the first or second '5' from "551".
Both result in the string "51".


Constraints:

• 2 <= number.length <= 100
• number consists of digits from '1' to '9'.
• digit is a digit from '1' to '9'.
• digit occurs at least once in number.

## Solution 1: Brute Force

Try all possible resulting strings.

Time complexity: O(n2)
Space complexity: O(n)

## C++

You are given two integers m and n representing a 0-indexed m x n grid. You are also given two 2D integer arrays guards and walls where guards[i] = [rowi, coli] and walls[j] = [rowj, colj] represent the positions of the ith guard and jth wall respectively.

A guard can see every cell in the four cardinal directions (north, east, south, or west) starting from their position unless obstructed by a wall or another guard. A cell is guarded if there is at least one guard that can see it.

Return the number of unoccupied cells that are not guarded.

Example 1:

Input: m = 4, n = 6, guards = [[0,0],[1,1],[2,3]], walls = [[0,1],[2,2],[1,4]]
Output: 7
Explanation: The guarded and unguarded cells are shown in red and green respectively in the above diagram.
There are a total of 7 unguarded cells, so we return 7.


Example 2:

Input: m = 3, n = 3, guards = [[1,1]], walls = [[0,1],[1,0],[2,1],[1,2]]
Output: 4
Explanation: The unguarded cells are shown in green in the above diagram.
There are a total of 4 unguarded cells, so we return 4.


Constraints:

• 1 <= m, n <= 105
• 2 <= m * n <= 105
• 1 <= guards.length, walls.length <= 5 * 104
• 2 <= guards.length + walls.length <= m * n
• guards[i].length == walls[j].length == 2
• 0 <= rowi, rowj < m
• 0 <= coli, colj < n
• All the positions in guards and walls are unique.

## Solution: Simulation

Enumerate each cell, for each guard, shoot rays to 4 directions, mark cells on the way to 1 and stop when hit a guard or a wall.

Time complexity: O(mn)
Space complexity: O(mn)

## C++

You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums of length n.

The average difference of the index i is the absolute difference between the average of the first i + 1 elements of nums and the average of the last n - i - 1 elements. Both averages should be rounded down to the nearest integer.

Return the index with the minimum average difference. If there are multiple such indices, return the smallest one.

Note:

• The absolute difference of two numbers is the absolute value of their difference.
• The average of n elements is the sum of the n elements divided (integer division) by n.
• The average of 0 elements is considered to be 0.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [2,5,3,9,5,3]
Output: 3
Explanation:
- The average difference of index 0 is: |2 / 1 - (5 + 3 + 9 + 5 + 3) / 5| = |2 / 1 - 25 / 5| = |2 - 5| = 3.
- The average difference of index 1 is: |(2 + 5) / 2 - (3 + 9 + 5 + 3) / 4| = |7 / 2 - 20 / 4| = |3 - 5| = 2.
- The average difference of index 2 is: |(2 + 5 + 3) / 3 - (9 + 5 + 3) / 3| = |10 / 3 - 17 / 3| = |3 - 5| = 2.
- The average difference of index 3 is: |(2 + 5 + 3 + 9) / 4 - (5 + 3) / 2| = |19 / 4 - 8 / 2| = |4 - 4| = 0.
- The average difference of index 4 is: |(2 + 5 + 3 + 9 + 5) / 5 - 3 / 1| = |24 / 5 - 3 / 1| = |4 - 3| = 1.
- The average difference of index 5 is: |(2 + 5 + 3 + 9 + 5 + 3) / 6 - 0| = |27 / 6 - 0| = |4 - 0| = 4.
The average difference of index 3 is the minimum average difference so return 3.


Example 2:

Input: nums = [0]
Output: 0
Explanation:
The only index is 0 so return 0.
The average difference of index 0 is: |0 / 1 - 0| = |0 - 0| = 0.


Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 105
• 0 <= nums[i] <= 105

Solution: Prefix / Suffix Sum

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(1)