Maximum Distance Between a Pair of Values — LeetCode 1855 Python Solution

The problem

You are given two non-increasing 0-indexed integer arrays nums1​​​​​​ and nums2​​​​​​. A pair of indices (i, j), where 0 <= i < nums1.length and 0 <= j < nums2.length, is valid if both i <= j and nums1[i] <= nums2[j].

Example

Input

nums1 = [55,30,5,4,2], nums2 = [100,20,10,10,5]

Output

2

Explanation

The valid pairs are (0,0), (2,2), (2,3), (2,4), (3,3), (3,4), and (4,4).

Python solution

class Solution:
    def maxDistance(self, nums1: List[int], nums2: List[int]) -> int:
        ans = 0
        nums2 = nums2[::-1]
        for i, v in enumerate(nums1):
            j = len(nums2) - bisect_left(nums2, v) - 1
            ans = max(ans, j - i)
        return ans

Complexity

Pattern: Two Pointers

Use the order already in the input to discard half the search space at every step. LeetCode 1855. Maximum Distance Between a Pair of Values is filed here on both counts: the reference solution below belongs to the algorithm family this hub collects, and LeetCode tags it Two Pointers.

The two pointers guide has the Python template for the pattern and the 201 LeetCode problems that use it.

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