Is Container With Most Water easy or hard?

Container With Most Water is classified as a Medium problem. The brute force solution is straightforward, but recognizing the two-pointer optimization requires understanding how to eliminate unnecessary pairs while preserving the possibility of finding a larger area.

Container With Most Water Python/Java solution

Python and Java implementations typically follow the same two-pointer logic: initialize left and right indices, compute area using min(height[left], height[right]), update the maximum, and move the pointer with the smaller height. The loop continues until the pointers meet, achieving O(n) runtime.

How to solve Container With Most Water in O(n)?

Place two pointers at the leftmost and rightmost indices of the height array. Calculate the area using the shorter height and the width between pointers. Move the pointer pointing to the smaller height inward and repeat until the pointers meet. This strategy works because only a taller boundary can increase the possible container height.

What is the best approach for Container With Most Water?

The best approach uses the Two Pointers technique. Start with one pointer at the beginning of the array and another at the end, compute the container area, then move the pointer with the smaller height inward. This greedy rule ensures all useful candidates are considered while scanning the array once, giving O(n) time and O(1) space complexity.

Is Container With Most Water asked at Google/Amazon/Meta?

Container With Most Water is a common interview problem at companies like Google, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft. It tests recognition of the two-pointer pattern, reasoning about greedy decisions, and the ability to reduce a brute force search space to a linear scan.

What data structure is used in Container With Most Water?

The problem primarily uses an array along with the two pointers technique. No additional data structures such as hash maps or stacks are required. The algorithm operates directly on the array indices while maintaining constant extra memory.

What is the time complexity of Container With Most Water?

The optimal solution runs in O(n) time using the two pointers technique because each pointer moves at most once across the array. The brute force method checks every pair of lines and takes O(n^2) time. Both approaches use O(1) additional space.

Description Hints 3 Solution Video 12:37

11. Container With Most Water

Medium60.9% acceptance57 companies

You are given an integer array height of length n. There are n vertical lines drawn such that the two endpoints of the i^th line are (i, 0) and (i, height[i]).

Find two lines that together with the x-axis form a container, such that the container contains the most water.

Return the maximum amount of water a container can store.

Notice that you may not slant the container.

Example 1:

Input: height = [1,8,6,2,5,4,8,3,7]
Output: 49
Explanation: The above vertical lines are represented by array [1,8,6,2,5,4,8,3,7]. In this case, the max area of water (blue section) the container can contain is 49.

Example 2: