Leetcode #1042: Flower Planting With No Adjacent

In this guide, we solve Leetcode #1042 Flower Planting With No Adjacent in Python and focus on the core idea that makes the solution efficient.

You will see the intuition, the step-by-step method, and a clean Python implementation you can use in interviews.

Leetcode

Problem Statement

You have n gardens, labeled from 1 to n, and an array paths where paths[i] = [xi, yi] describes a bidirectional path between garden xi to garden yi. In each garden, you want to plant one of 4 types of flowers.

Quick Facts

Difficulty: Medium
Premium: No
Tags: Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Graph

Intuition

The data forms a graph, so we should explore nodes and edges systematically.

A traversal ensures we visit each node once while maintaining the needed state.

Approach

Build an adjacency list and traverse with BFS or DFS.

Aggregate results as you visit nodes.

Steps:

Build the graph.
Traverse with BFS/DFS.
Accumulate the required output.

Example

Input: n = 3, paths = [[1,2],[2,3],[3,1]]
Output: [1,2,3]
Explanation:
Gardens 1 and 2 have different types.
Gardens 2 and 3 have different types.
Gardens 3 and 1 have different types.
Hence, [1,2,3] is a valid answer. Other valid answers include [1,2,4], [1,4,2], and [3,2,1].

Python Solution

class Solution:
    def gardenNoAdj(self, n: int, paths: List[List[int]]) -> List[int]:
        g = defaultdict(list)
        for x, y in paths:
            x, y = x - 1, y - 1
            g[x].append(y)
            g[y].append(x)
        ans = [0] * n
        for x in range(n):
            used = {ans[y] for y in g[x]}
            for c in range(1, 5):
                if c not in used:
                    ans[x] = c
                    break
        return ans

Complexity

The time complexity is $O(n + m)$ , and the space complexity is $O(n + m)$ , where $n$ is the number of gardens and $m$ is the number of paths. The space complexity is $O(n + m)$ , where $n$ is the number of gardens and $m$ is the number of paths.

Edge Cases and Pitfalls

Watch for boundary values, empty inputs, and duplicate values where applicable. If the problem involves ordering or constraints, confirm the invariant is preserved at every step.

Summary

This Python solution focuses on the essential structure of the problem and keeps the implementation interview-friendly while meeting the constraints.

Python Solution

class Solution:
    def gardenNoAdj(self, n: int, paths: List[List[int]]) -> List[int]:
        g = defaultdict(list)
        for x, y in paths:
            x, y = x - 1, y - 1
            g[x].append(y)
            g[y].append(x)
        ans = [0] * n
        for x in range(n):
            used = {ans[y] for y in g[x]}
            for c in range(1, 5):
                if c not in used:
                    ans[x] = c
                    break
        return ans

Leetcode #1042: Flower Planting With No Adjacent

Problem Statement

Quick Facts

Intuition

Approach

Example

Python Solution

Complexity

Edge Cases and Pitfalls

Summary

Ace your next coding interview

Leetcode #1042: Flower Planting With No Adjacent

Problem Statement

Quick Facts

Intuition

Approach

Example

Python Solution

Complexity

Edge Cases and Pitfalls

Summary

Ace your next coding interview