Network delay time [DFS, Dijkstra’s algorithm (Heap)]

Time: O(ExLogV); Space: O(E); medium

There are N network nodes, labelled 1 to N.

Given times, a list of travel times as directed edges times[i] = (u, v, w), where:

  • u is the source node,

  • v is the target node, and

  • w is the time it takes for a signal to travel from source to target.

Now, we send a signal from a certain node K.

How long will it take for all nodes to receive the signal?

If it is impossible, return -1.

Example 1:

Input: times = [[2,1,1],[2,3,1],[3,4,1]], N = 4, K = 2

Output: 2

Notes:

  • N will be in the range [1, 100].

  • K will be in the range [1, N].

  • The length of times will be in the range [1, 6000].

  • All edges times[i] = (u, v, w) will have 1 <= u, v <= N and 0 <= w <= 100.

Hints:

  1. We visit each node at some time, and if that time is better than the fastest time we’ve reached this node, we travel along outgoing edges in sorted order.

  2. Alternatively, we could use Dijkstra’s algorithm.

2. Dijkstra’s Algorithm

Intuition and Algorithm

We use Dijkstra’s algorithm to find the shortest path from our source to all targets.

This is a textbook algorithm, refer to this link for more details.

Dijkstra’s algorithm is based on repeatedly making the candidate move that has the least distance travelled.

In our implementations below, we showcase both O(N^2) (basic) and O(NlogN) (heap) approaches.

[6]:
import collections

class Solution2(object):
    """
    Dijkstra's Algorithm.
    """
    def networkDelayTime(self, times, N, K):
        """
        :type times: List[List[int]]
        :type N: int
        :type K: int
        :rtype: int
        """
        graph = collections.defaultdict(list)
        for u, v, w in times:
            graph[u].append((v, w))

        dist = {node: float('inf') for node in range(1, N+1)}
        seen = [False] * (N+1)
        dist[K] = 0

        while True:
            cand_node = -1
            cand_dist = float('inf')
            for i in range(1, N+1):
                if not seen[i] and dist[i] < cand_dist:
                    cand_dist = dist[i]
                    cand_node = i

            if cand_node < 0: break
            seen[cand_node] = True
            for nei, d in graph[cand_node]:
                dist[nei] = min(dist[nei], dist[cand_node] + d)

        ans = max(dist.values())
        return ans if ans < float('inf') else -1
[7]:
s = Solution2()
times = [
    [2,1,1],
    [2,3,1],
    [3,4,1]
]
N = 4
K = 2
assert s.networkDelayTime(times, N, K) == 2

3. Dijkstra’s Algorithm. Heap implementation.

[8]:
import collections
import heapq

class Solution3(object):
    """
    Dijkstra's algorithm. Heap implementation.
    Time:  O((|E|+|V|)*Log|V|) = O(|E|*Log|V|) by using binary heap,
           if we can further to use Fibonacci heap, it would be O(|E|+|V|*Log|V|)
    Space: O(|E|+|V|) = O(|E|)
    """
    def networkDelayTime(self, times, N, K):
        """
        :type times: List[List[int]]
        :type N: int
        :type K: int
        :rtype: int
        """
        adj = [[] for _ in range(N)]
        for u, v, w in times:
            adj[u-1].append((v-1, w))

        result = 0
        lookup = set()
        best = collections.defaultdict(lambda: float("inf"))
        min_heap = [(0, K-1)]

        while min_heap and len(lookup) != N:
            result, u = heapq.heappop(min_heap)
            lookup.add(u)
            if best[u] < result:
                continue

            for v, w in adj[u]:
                if v in lookup: continue
                if result+w < best[v]:
                    best[v] = result + w
                    heapq.heappush(min_heap, (result + w, v))

        return result if len(lookup) == N else -1
[9]:
s = Solution3()
times = [
    [2,1,1],
    [2,3,1],
    [3,4,1]
]
N = 4
K = 2
assert s.networkDelayTime(times, N, K) == 2
[10]:
import collections
import heapq

class Solution3a(object):
    """
    Time: O(N^2 + E) where E is the length of times in the basic implementation,
          and O(ELogE) in the heap implementation, as potentially every edge gets added to the heap.
    Space: O(N+E), the size of the graph (O(E)), plus the size of the other objects used (O(N)).
    """
    def networkDelayTime(self, times, N, K):
        """
        :type times: List[List[int]]
        :type N: int
        :type K: int
        :rtype: int
        """
        graph = collections.defaultdict(list)
        for u, v, w in times:
            graph[u].append((v, w))

        pq = [(0, K)]
        dist = {}
        while pq:
            d, node = heapq.heappop(pq)
            if node in dist: continue
            dist[node] = d
            for nei, d2 in graph[node]:
                if nei not in dist:
                    heapq.heappush(pq, (d+d2, nei))

        return max(dist.values()) if len(dist) == N else -1
[11]:
s = Solution3a()
times = [
    [2,1,1],
    [2,3,1],
    [3,4,1]
]
N = 4
K = 2
assert s.networkDelayTime(times, N, K) == 2