Course Schedule IV

Updated on 16 May, 2025
Course Schedule IV header image

Problem Statement

In the educational setting of this problem, you are required to complete certain courses to fulfill a degree requirement, and each course may have other courses as prerequisites. Specifically, let's say there are numCourses courses, uniquely identified from 0 to numCourses - 1.

The requirements are defined in an array prerequisites, where each element, [ai, bi], denotes that you must take course ai before you can enroll in course bi.

Furthermore, the relationship created by these prerequisites can be multilayered or indirect. For example, if a is a prerequisite for b and b is a prerequisite for c, then implicitly a is also a prerequisite for c.

The main task here is to answer several queries about these course relationships, which are provided in the array queries. Each query, [uj, vj], asks whether course uj is a prerequisite for course vj. The expected output in response to the queries is a boolean array where each element corresponds to whether the queried relationship exists.

Examples

Example 1

Input:

numCourses = 2, prerequisites = [[1,0]], queries = [[0,1],[1,0]]

Output:

[false,true]

Explanation:

The pair [1, 0] indicates that you have to take course 1 before you can take course 0.
Course 0 is not a prerequisite of course 1, but the opposite is true.

Example 2

Input:

numCourses = 2, prerequisites = [], queries = [[1,0],[0,1]]

Output:

[false,false]

Explanation:

There are no prerequisites, and each course is independent.

Example 3

Input:

numCourses = 3, prerequisites = [[1,2],[1,0],[2,0]], queries = [[1,0],[1,2]]

Output:

[true,true]

Constraints

  • 2 <= numCourses <= 100
  • 0 <= prerequisites.length <= (numCourses * (numCourses - 1) / 2)
  • prerequisites[i].length == 2
  • 0 <= ai, bi <= numCourses - 1
  • ai != bi
  • All the pairs [ai, bi] are unique.
  • The prerequisites graph has no cycles.
  • 1 <= queries.length <= 104
  • 0 <= ui, vi <= numCourses - 1
  • ui != vi

Approach and Intuition

  1. Graph Representation of Prerequisites: To efficiently answer the prerequisite checks, you can represent the given prerequisites as a directed graph. Here, each course is a node and a directed edge from node ai to node bi indicates that ai is a prerequisite for bi.

  2. Processing the Graph with Depth-first Search (DFS) or Breadth-first Search (BFS): To determine if there exists a path from course uj to course vj (i.e., if uj is a prerequisite for vj), one can perform a search starting at course uj. If you can reach vj, then the answer is true, otherwise it’s false.

  3. Using Transitive Closure: A more preemptive approach uses the concept of transitive closure in graph theory, which can preprocess the information to quickly answer any queried relationship. Specifically, this involves computing a matrix which answers whether a path exists between each pair of nodes (courses) or not.

  4. Handling Disconnected Graphs: Since some courses may not have any prerequisites, the graph can be disconnected. This means it's possible that some courses are not reachable from others, and this needs to be taken into account to avoid erroneous conclusions.

  5. Edge Cases:

    • Where no prerequisites are defined (prerequisites = []), each query should return false since no course is related to another.
    • In scenarios where prerequisites forms a long chain or deep trees, ensuring that the search doesn't exceed the allowed time is crucial, making the choice of search algorithm or strategy critical.

Through these approaches, the system devised can respond accurately and efficiently to the prerequisite queries, reflecting the complexities and dependencies among the courses in a structured educational framework.

Solutions

  • C++
  • Java
  • Python
cpp
class Solution {
public:
    vector<bool> prerequisitesCheck(int coursesCount,
                                     vector<vector<int>>& preconditions,
                                     vector<vector<int>>& courseQueries) {
        vector<vector<bool>> prerequisiteMatrix(coursesCount,
                                                vector<bool>(coursesCount, false));
        for (auto pre : preconditions) {
            prerequisiteMatrix[pre[0]][pre[1]] = true;
        }

        for (int k = 0; k < coursesCount; k++) {
            for (int i = 0; i < coursesCount; i++) {
                for (int j = 0; j < coursesCount; j++) {
                    // Transitive closure update.
                    prerequisiteMatrix[i][j] = prerequisiteMatrix[i][j] ||
                                               (prerequisiteMatrix[i][k] && prerequisiteMatrix[k][j]);
                }
            }
        }

        vector<bool> results;
        for (auto query : courseQueries) {
            results.push_back(prerequisiteMatrix[query[0]][query[1]]);
        }

        return results;
    }
};

The provided C++ code defines a function within a class Solution that determines if specific courses are prerequisites for others based on given preconditions. The function prerequisitesCheck involves the following steps:

  1. Initialize a 2D boolean matrix prerequisiteMatrix sized according to the coursesCount, setting all values initially to false. This matrix represents whether a course at index i is a prerequisite for a course at index j.

  2. Populate this matrix using a given list of preconditions. Each precondition is a vector where the first element is a prerequisite for the second element; this relationship is marked as true in the matrix.

  3. Utilize the Floyd-Warshall algorithm to compute the transitive closure of the prerequisites matrix. This determines whether a sequence of prerequisite relationships exists between any two courses, updating the matrix to reflect these extended relationships.

  4. Process each query in courseQueries to determine if one course is a prerequisite for another by checking the final state of prerequisiteMatrix.

  5. Push the result (true or false) into a results vector based on the queried relationships from courseQueries.

  6. Return the results vector, which contains boolean values corresponding to each query, indicating whether the first course in the query is a prerequisite for the second course based on both direct and indirect preconditions.

java
public class Solution {

    public List<Boolean> canTakeCourses(
        int totalCourses,
        int[][] courseDependencies,
        int[][] courseQueries
    ) {
        boolean[][] directPrerequisite = new boolean[totalCourses][totalCourses];

        for (int[] coursePair : courseDependencies) {
            directPrerequisite[coursePair[0]][coursePair[1]] = true;
        }

        for (int middleCourse = 0; middleCourse < totalCourses; middleCourse++) {
            for (int startCourse = 0; startCourse < totalCourses; startCourse++) {
                for (int endCourse = 0; endCourse < totalCourses; endCourse++) {
                    directPrerequisite[startCourse][endCourse] =
                        directPrerequisite[startCourse][endCourse] ||
                        (directPrerequisite[startCourse][middleCourse] &&
                            directPrerequisite[middleCourse][endCourse]);
                }
            }
        }

        List<Boolean> results = new ArrayList<>();
        for (int[] query : courseQueries) {
            results.add(directPrerequisite[query[0]][query[1]]);
        }

        return results;
    }
}

This solution addresses the problem of determining if specific courses can be taken given a list of course prerequisites. The Java implementation utilizes a graph represented by a 2D Boolean array (directPrerequisite) to track direct and indirect prerequisites among courses.

  • Initialize a 2D array directPrerequisite where each element [i][j] is set to true if course i is a direct prerequisite for course j.
  • Iterate over the provided courseDependencies array to populate the directPrerequisite array based on the direct relationships given.
  • Use the Floyd-Warshall algorithm to compute transitive closures within the graph. This loop:
    • Goes through each course as a possible intermediate step (middleCourse).
    • Then iterates for each possible starting (startCourse) and ending course (endCourse).
    • Updates directPrerequisite[startCourse][endCourse] to true if there exists a path through middleCourse that makes startCourse a prerequisite for endCourse.

After building the complete transitive closure:

  • Initialize an ArrayList results to store Boolean values.
  • For each pair of courses in courseQueries, check directPrerequisite to determine if the second course can be taken after completing the first course.
  • Return the results list indicating for each query pair whether the second course is accessible given the prerequisites.

This approach effectively queries prerequisite relationships in constant time after an initial computation cost, making it efficient for multiple queries.

python
class Solution:
    def isPrerequisiteExists(
        self,
        totalCourses: int,
        prereq: List[List[int]],
        courseQueries: List[List[int]],
    ) -> List[bool]:
        directPrereq = [[False] * totalCourses for _ in range(totalCourses)]

        for p in prereq:
            directPrereq[p[0]][p[1]] = True

        for k in range(totalCourses):
            for i in range(totalCourses):
                for j in range(totalCourses):
                    directPrereq[i][j] = (
                        directPrereq[i][j] or (directPrereq[i][k] and directPrereq[k][j])
                    )

        results = []
        for query in courseQueries:
            results.append(directPrereq[query[0]][query[1]])

        return results

The Python3 solution provided facilitates determining if certain courses are prerequisites for others within a set schedule. The code addresses the task through the following steps:

  1. Initialize a two-dimensional list called directPrereq to store boolean values, set to False by default, which represent whether a course is a direct prerequisite of another course.

  2. Update the directPrereq matrix based on the given list of prerequisites. If a specific course a is a prerequisite for course b, then the respective cell in the matrix for these courses is set to True.

  3. Use the Floyd-Warshall algorithm to extend the direct prerequisite relations to indirect relationships. This involves three nested loops which iteratively update the directPrereq matrix to reflect whether a transition through an intermediate course establishes a prerequisite relationship.

  4. For each query in courseQueries, check the directPrereq matrix to see if the first course is a prerequisite for the second course in the query list. The result for each query is then appended to the results list.

  5. Return the list of boolean results corresponding to each query, indicating whether the first course in each query is a prerequisite for the second one.

This solution effectively transforms the initial list of direct prerequisites into a comprehensive map of all (direct and indirect) prerequisite relationships, allowing quick look-up for the queries.

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