| Rotting Oranges |
Medium |
Complete |
BFS, Graph, 2D-Grid Traversal |
[Solution Link] |
Realized it must be BFS to find the minimum time (shortest path from multiple sources). Tricky part was initializing the queue with all rotten oranges at time t=0. |
BFS on a grid is the standard pattern for shortest time/distance problems. Need a counter for fresh oranges to check the final condition. |
Must remember the final check: if (fresh_count > 0) return -1. Could have been cleaner using a single integer for ‘minutes’ instead of tracking layers explicitly. |