Crack the LeetCode: Tips & Strategies on How to Tackle 15 Common Problem Patterns

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Embarking on the LeetCode journey requires more than just coding skills; it demands a deep understanding of problem patterns that frequently recur across various challenges. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore 15 common problem patterns that serve as the foundation for numerous LeetCode problems. Each pattern unlocks a set of strategies, offering you a roadmap to efficiently tackle challenges related to arrays, strings, dynamic programming, graphs, and more.

I. Overview:

The 15 problem patterns include:

1. Two Pointers: Used to efficiently solve problems with pointers that move towards each other or in opposite directions.
2. Sliding Window: Involves maintaining a subset of elements within a fixed-size window as it slides through an array or sequence.
3. Binary Search: A classic searching algorithm for finding an element in a sorted array or performing operations on a sorted list.
4. Depth-First Search (DFS): A traversal technique where you go as deep as possible down one branch before backtracking.
5. Breadth-First Search (BFS): A traversal technique where you visit all the neighbors of a node before moving on to the next level of nodes.