Gas Station
Detailed guide and Python implementation for the 'Gas Station' problem.
Problem Statement
There are n gas stations along a circular route, where the amount of gas at the ith station is gas[i]. You have a car with an unlimited gas tank and it costs cost[i] of gas to travel from the ith station to its next (i + 1)th station. You begin the journey with an empty tank at one of the gas stations. Return the starting gas station's index if you can travel around the circuit once in the clockwise direction, otherwise return -1. If there exists a solution, it is guaranteed to be unique.
Write a function canCompleteCircuit(gas: List[int], cost: List[int]) -> int.
- •n == len(gas) == len(cost)
- •1 <= n <= 10^5
- •0 <= gas[i], cost[i] <= 10^4
Examples
gas = [1,2,3,4,5], cost = [3,4,5,1,2]
3
Start at station 3. tank = 4. Go to 4: cost 1, tank = 4-1+5 = 8. Go to 0: cost 2, tank = 8-2+1=7. Go to 1: cost 3, tank = 7-3+2=6. Go to 2: cost 4, tank = 6-4+3=5. Go to 3: cost 5, tank = 5-5=0. We reached back to station 3.
gas = [2,3,4], cost = [3,4,3]
-1
No station can complete the circuit.
Need a Hint?
Edge Cases to Watch
- Empty input structures
- Single element inputs
- Large numerical bounds
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