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Course Schedule II

Detailed guide and Python implementation for the 'Course Schedule II' problem.

Problem Statement

Easy

There are a total of numCourses courses you have to take, labeled from 0 to numCourses - 1. You are given an array prerequisites where prerequisites[i] = [ai, bi] indicates that you must take course bi first if you want to take course ai.

Return the ordering of courses you should take to finish all courses. If there are many valid answers, return any of them. If it is impossible to finish all courses, return an empty array.

Write a function findOrder(numCourses: int, prerequisites: List[List[int]]) -> List[int].

Constraints
  • 1 <= numCourses <= 2000
  • 0 <= len(prerequisites) <= 5000
  • prerequisites[i].length == 2
  • 0 <= ai, bi < numCourses

Examples

Example 1
Input
numCourses = 2, prerequisites = [[1,0]]
Output
[0,1]
Explanation

There are a total of 2 courses to take. To take course 1 you should have finished course 0. So the correct course order is [0,1].

Example 2
Input
numCourses = 4, prerequisites = [[1,0],[2,0],[3,1],[3,2]]
Output
[0,2,1,3]
Explanation

There are a total of 4 courses to take. To take course 3 you should have finished both courses 1 and 2. Both courses 1 and 2 should be taken after you finished course 0. So one correct course order is [0,1,2,3]. Another correct ordering is [0,2,1,3].

Need a Hint?
Consider using Graphs-specific data structures like sets or heaps.
Edge Cases to Watch
  • Empty input structures
  • Single element inputs
  • Large numerical bounds

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