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Distribute Elements Into Two Arrays I

Difficulty: Easy

Problem Description

You are given a 1-indexed array of distinct integers nums of length n. You need to distribute all the elements of nums between two arrays arr1 and arr2 using n operations. In the first operation, append nums[1] to arr1. In the second operation, append nums[2] to arr2. Afterwards, in the i-th operation, if the last element of arr1 is greater than the last element of arr2, append nums[i] to arr1. Otherwise, append nums[i] to arr2. The array result is formed by concatenating the arrays arr1 and arr2. Return the array result.

Key Insights

  • The operations alternate between two arrays based on the comparison of their last elements.
  • The first two elements are directly assigned to arr1 and arr2.
  • The subsequent elements are placed based on the comparison of the last elements of the two arrays.
  • The entire procedure is straightforward and involves a simple iteration over the input array.

Space and Time Complexity

Time Complexity: O(n)
Space Complexity: O(n)

Solution

The solution involves simulating the distribution of elements into two arrays. We maintain two lists, arr1 and arr2, and iterate through the given nums array. We append the first element to arr1 and the second to arr2. For subsequent elements, we check the last elements of both arrays to decide where to place the current element. Finally, we concatenate both arrays to form the result.

Code Solutions

def distributeElements(nums):
    arr1 = []
    arr2 = []
    
    # First operation
    arr1.append(nums[0])  # Append first element to arr1
    # Second operation
    arr2.append(nums[1])  # Append second element to arr2
    
    # Iterate through the remaining elements
    for i in range(2, len(nums)):
        if arr1[-1] > arr2[-1]:
            arr1.append(nums[i])  # Append to arr1 if last of arr1 is greater
        else:
            arr2.append(nums[i])  # Otherwise append to arr2
    
    return arr1 + arr2  # Concatenate results
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