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A Colorful Challenge: Solving Leetcode 2038

2 min readOct 2, 2023

Leetcode 2038. Remove Colored Pieces if Both Neighbors are the Same Color

Have you ever found yourself faced with a challenging puzzle that requires both logic and creativity to solve? Well, if you’re up for a colorful challenge, then Leetcode 2038 is the perfect puzzle for you! In this blog post, we’ll dive into the world of Leetcode 2038 and explore how to remove colored pieces when both neighbors are the same color. We’ll break down the problem, provide a step-by-step solution, and even illustrate it with an example.

Understanding the Puzzle

Before we can tackle any problem, it’s essential to understand what we’re dealing with. Leetcode 2038 presents us with a board containing colored pieces arranged in a row. Each colored piece can be one of two colors: ‘A’ or ‘B.’ The goal is to remove as many pieces as possible while following a specific rule — we can only remove a piece if its neighbors (the pieces adjacent to it) are of the same color.

Imagine this puzzle as a game of colored dominos. We want to strategically knock down pieces while ensuring that the neighboring pieces match in color.

Code are Here : https://bit.ly/Leetcode-2038-code

Code are Here : https://bit.ly/Leetcode-2038-code

A Step-by-Step Solution

Now that we’ve grasped the concept of the problem, let’s outline the steps to solve it:

1. Iterate Through the Board

We begin by iterating through the board, one piece at a time. We’ll check each piece’s color and evaluate whether it can be removed based on its neighbors.

2. Identify Eligible Pieces

For each piece, we examine its two neighbors (left and right). If both neighbors have the same color as the current piece, it means we can remove this piece. We mark it for removal.

3. Remove Marked Pieces

After identifying all the pieces that meet the removal criteria, we remove them from the board. This step reduces the board’s size and may create new opportunities for removing more pieces.

4. Repeat Until No More Removals

We repeat steps 1 to 3 until we can no longer remove any more pieces. This ensures that we’ve removed the maximum number of pieces possible while adhering to the rules.

Example: Let’s Play a Round

To solidify our understanding, let’s walk through a quick example. Consider the following board

Board: "AAABBBAAA"
  • We start with the first piece ‘A.’ Its neighbors are ‘A’ and ‘A,’ so we mark it for removal.
  • The board now looks like this: “AABBBAAA.”

We continue this process until we can no longer remove pieces. After a few rounds, the board will eventually stabilize, and we’ll have the maximum number of pieces removed.

Conclusion

Leetcode 2038 challenges us to think critically and strategically. It’s a puzzle that requires us to make decisions based on the colors of neighboring pieces. By following the step-by-step solution outlined in this blog post, you’ll be well on your way to mastering this colorful challenge. So, if you’re up for the task, give it a try and see how many colored pieces you can remove! Happy coding!

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Nilesh Raut
Nilesh Raut

Written by Nilesh Raut

I having 1 + Year Experience in SEO , content writing , Web Development , Machine learning .I am Founder and Author @ www.Nileshblog.tech , www.Technilesh.com

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