Trapping Rain Water

Hard
Two Pointers

Given n non-negative integers representing an elevation map where the width of each bar is 1, compute how much water it can trap after raining.

Example 1

Input: height = [0,1,0,2,1,0,1,3,2,1,2,1]
Output: 6
Explanation: The elevation map (black section) is represented by array [0,1,0,2,1,0,1,3,2,1,2,1]. In this case, 6 units of rain water (blue section) are being trapped.

Example 2

Input: height = [4,2,0,3,2,5]
Output: 9

Constraints

  • n == height.length
  • 1 <= n <= 2 * 10^4
  • 0 <= height[i] <= 10^5
Show Hints (3)
Hint 1: For each position, the water trapped depends on the minimum of (max height to the left, max height to the right) minus the current height.
Hint 2: Use two pointers starting from both ends, tracking the maximum heights seen from each side.
Hint 3: Process from the side with the smaller maximum height, since that determines the water level at that position.
Loading editor...

Test Results

Click "Run" to execute your code against test cases

AI Tutor

Socratic guidance - I'll ask questions, not give answers

AI Tutor
Hello! I'm your AI tutor, here to guide you through this problem using the Socratic method. I won't give you direct answers, but I'll ask questions and provide hints to help you discover the solution yourself. What's your first instinct when you look at this problem? What approach comes to mind?