Leetcode #1731: The Number of Employees Which Report to Each Employee
In this guide, we solve Leetcode #1731 The Number of Employees Which Report to Each Employee 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.
Problem Statement
Table: Employees +-------------+----------+ | Column Name | Type | +-------------+----------+ | employee_id | int | | name | varchar | | reports_to | int | | age | int | +-------------+----------+ employee_id is the column with unique values for this table. This table contains information about the employees and the id of the manager they report to.
Quick Facts
- Difficulty: Easy
- Premium: No
- Tags: Database
Intuition
The task is relational in nature, which maps cleanly to DataFrame operations in Python.
By treating tables as DataFrames, joins and group-bys become concise and readable.
Approach
Load the inputs as DataFrames and apply the appropriate merge, filter, or group-by.
Select or rename the columns to match the required output.
Steps:
- Load inputs as DataFrames.
- Apply merge/groupby/filter operations.
- Select the output columns.
Example
+-------------+----------+
| Column Name | Type |
+-------------+----------+
| employee_id | int |
| name | varchar |
| reports_to | int |
| age | int |
+-------------+----------+
employee_id is the column with unique values for this table.
This table contains information about the employees and the id of the manager they report to. Some employees do not report to anyone (reports_to is null).
Python Solution
import duckdb
import pandas as pd
def solution(employees: pd.DataFrame) -> pd.DataFrame:
con = duckdb.connect()
con.register("Employees", employees)
return con.execute("""SELECT
e2.employee_id,
e2.name,
COUNT(1) AS reports_count,
ROUND(AVG(e1.age)) AS average_age
FROM
Employees AS e1
JOIN Employees AS e2 ON e1.reports_to = e2.employee_id
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;""").df()
Complexity
The time complexity is O(n log n) (typical). The space complexity is O(n).
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.