Can Place Flowers
Decide whether n new flowers can be planted in a flowerbed without any two flowers being adjacent.
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Lesson notes
Try it before you watch
Restate the problem in your own words, list the edge cases, and sketch a solution with its running time. Then play the video and compare.
Reveal the key idea
Scan left to right and plant in every empty plot whose neighbours are empty, treating positions outside the bed as empty.
Pattern: Greedy & intervals. Make the locally best choice, usually after sorting, and argue why it never hurts later.
Complexity
| Measure | Bound |
|---|---|
| Time | O(n) |
| Extra space | O(1) |
Walkthroughs often start from a simpler approach first; aim to reach these bounds. New to Big-O? Read understanding algorithmic complexity.