LeetCode 1293. Shortest Path in a Grid with Obstacles Elimination

Description

https://leetcode.com/problems/shortest-path-in-a-grid-with-obstacles-elimination/

You are given an m x n integer matrix grid where each cell is either 0 (empty) or 1 (obstacle). You can move up, down, left, or right from and to an empty cell in one step.

Return the minimum number of steps to walk from the upper left corner (0, 0) to the lower right corner (m - 1, n - 1) given that you can eliminate at most k obstacles. If it is not possible to find such walk return -1.

Example 1:

Input: grid = [[0,0,0],[1,1,0],[0,0,0],[0,1,1],[0,0,0]], k = 1
Output: 6
Explanation: 
The shortest path without eliminating any obstacle is 10.
The shortest path with one obstacle elimination at position (3,2) is 6. Such path is (0,0) -> (0,1) -> (0,2) -> (1,2) -> (2,2) -> (3,2) -> (4,2).

Example 2:

Input: grid = [[0,1,1],[1,1,1],[1,0,0]], k = 1
Output: -1
Explanation: We need to eliminate at least two obstacles to find such a walk.

Constraints:

• m == grid.length
• n == grid[i].length
• 1 <= m, n <= 40
• 1 <= k <= m * n
• grid[i][j] is either 0 or 1.
• grid[0][0] == grid[m - 1][n - 1] == 0

Python Solution

Use breadth-first search to find the shortest path to the bottom-right cell. Track the number of eliminations that has been used.

class Solution:
    def shortestPath(self, grid: List[List[int]], k: int) -> int:
        if not grid or not grid[0]:
            return -1

        m, n = len(grid), len(grid[0])
        
        target = (m - 1, n - 1)

        queue = collections.deque()
        initial_state = (0, 0, k)
        queue.append(initial_state)

        distance = {}
        distance[initial_state] = 0
                
        DIRECTIONS = [(0, -1), (0, 1), (-1, 0), (1, 0)]

        while queue:
            x, y, k = queue.popleft()
            
            if (x, y) == target:
                return distance[(x, y, k)]
            
            for dx, dy in DIRECTIONS:
                adj_x = x + dx
                adj_y = y + dy

                if not (0 <= adj_x < len(grid) and 0 <= adj_y < len(grid[0])):
                    continue

                new_state = (adj_x, adj_y, k - grid[adj_x][adj_y])

                if new_state in distance:
                    continue
                
                if new_state[2] >= 0:
                    queue.append(new_state)
                    distance[new_state] = distance[(x, y, k)] + 1
        
        return -1