find the shortest path between two points with obstacles

Question

I need to find shortest path between two points in a grid given an obstacles.

Given a 2 dimensional matrix where some of the elements are filled with 1 and rest of the elements are filled. Here X means you cannot traverse to that particular points. From a cell you can either traverse to left, right, up or down. Given two points in the matrix find the shortest path between these points. Here S is the starting point and E is the Ending point.

I came up with below code but I wanted to understand from the interview point of view what is the most efficient algorithm to solve this problem? Is there any better way to do this?

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    char[][] matrix =  {{'1','1','1', '1'},
                        {'1','S','1', '1'},
                        {'1','1','X', '1'},
                        {'1','1','1', 'E'}};

    System.out.println(shortestPath(matrix));
  }

  public static int shortestPath(char[][] matrix) {
    int s_row = 0, s_col = 0;
    boolean flag = false;
    for (s_row = 0; s_row < matrix.length; s_row++) {
      for (s_col = 0; s_col < matrix[0].length; s_col++) {
        if (matrix[s_row][s_col] == 'S')
          flag = true;
        if (flag)
          break;
      }
      if (flag)
        break;
    }
    return shortestPath(matrix, s_row, s_col);
  }

  public static int shortestPath(char[][] matrix, int s_row, int s_col) {
    int count = 0;
    Queue<int[]> nextToVisit = new LinkedList<>();
    nextToVisit.offer(new int[] {s_row, s_col});
    Set<int[]> visited = new HashSet<>();
    Queue<int[]> temp = new LinkedList<>();

    while (!nextToVisit.isEmpty()) {
      int[] position = nextToVisit.poll();
      int row = position[0];
      int col = position[1];

      if (matrix[row][col] == 'E')
        return count;
      if (row > 0 && !visited.contains(new int[] {row - 1, col}) && matrix[row - 1][col] != 'X')
        temp.offer(new int[] {row - 1, col});
      if (row < matrix.length - 1 && !visited.contains(new int[] {row + 1, col})
          && matrix[row + 1][col] != 'X')
        temp.offer(new int[] {row + 1, col});
      if (col > 0 && !visited.contains(new int[] {row, col - 1}) && matrix[row][col - 1] != 'X')
        temp.offer(new int[] {row, col - 1});
      if (col < matrix[0].length - 1 && !visited.contains(new int[] {row, col + 1})
          && matrix[row][col + 1] != 'X')
        temp.offer(new int[] {row, col + 1});

      if (nextToVisit.isEmpty() && !temp.isEmpty()) {
        nextToVisit = temp;
        temp = new LinkedList<>();
        count++;
      }

    }
    return count;
  }

Answer 1

Hope this helps -

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Map.Entry;
import java.util.TreeMap;

import GridNavigationTest.Direction;

public class GridNavigationTest {
    public static final int[][] navigableGrid = new int[][] { 
        { 1, 1, 1, 1 }, 
        { 1, 0, 0, 1 }, 
        { 1, 0, 1, 1 },
        { 1, 0, 1, 0 }, 
        { 1, 1, 9, 0 }
    };

    public enum Direction {
        UP, DOWN, RIGHT, LEFT;

        public Direction reverse() {
            Direction reverse = null;

            if (this.equals(Direction.UP)) {
                reverse = DOWN;
            } else if (this.equals(Direction.DOWN)) {
                reverse = UP;
            } else if (this.equals(Direction.RIGHT)) {
                reverse = LEFT;
            } else if (this.equals(Direction.LEFT)) {
                reverse = RIGHT;
            }

            return reverse;
        }
    };

    private static final Map<String, PathNode> nodesRegistry = new TreeMap<>();
    private static final RouteRegistry routeRegistry = new RouteRegistry();

    private static final String keyRefDelimiter = ":";
    private static final String keyRefFormat = "%d" + keyRefDelimiter + "%d";

    private static PathNode destinationNode = null;

    public static void main(String... arguments) {
        createNodesRegistry();
        findRoutes();
        printSignificantRoutes();
    }

    private static void printSignificantRoutes() {
        String shortestRoute = Arrays.toString(routeRegistry.getShortestRoute());
        System.out.println("-> Shortest\t: " + shortestRoute);

        String longestRoute = Arrays.toString(routeRegistry.getLongestRoute());
        System.out.println("-> Longest\t: " + longestRoute);
    }

    private static void createNodesRegistry() {
        for (int rowCount = 0; rowCount < navigableGrid.length; rowCount++) {
            for (int colCount = 0; colCount < navigableGrid[rowCount].length; colCount++) {
                // add current element's node representation to the nodes map, only if it is
                // active (value > 0)
                if (navigableGrid[rowCount][colCount] > 0) {
                    IntPair point = new IntPair(rowCount, colCount);
                    int value = navigableGrid[rowCount][colCount];

                    PathNode currentElementNode = new PathNode(point, value);
                    nodesRegistry.put(String.format(keyRefFormat, rowCount, colCount), currentElementNode);

                    // set adjacent references
                    setAdjacentReference(currentElementNode, rowCount - 1, colCount, Direction.UP);
                    setAdjacentReference(currentElementNode, rowCount + 1, colCount, Direction.DOWN);
                    setAdjacentReference(currentElementNode, rowCount, colCount + 1, Direction.RIGHT);
                    setAdjacentReference(currentElementNode, rowCount, colCount - 1, Direction.LEFT);

                    if (currentElementNode.getNodeValue() == 9) {
                        destinationNode = currentElementNode;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    private static void setAdjacentReference(PathNode currentNode, int row, int col, Direction direction) {
        PathNode adjacentNode = nodesRegistry.get(String.format(keyRefFormat, row, col));
        if (adjacentNode != null) {
            currentNode.setAdjacentNode(direction, adjacentNode);

            // set the reverse lookup link
            if (adjacentNode.getAdjacentNode(direction.reverse()) == null) {
                adjacentNode.setAdjacentNode(direction.reverse(), currentNode);
            }
        }
    }

    private static void findRoutes() {
        // initialize reverse tracing from the destination
        destinationNode.traceRoute(routeRegistry, null);
    }
}

class PathNode {
    private int nodeValue = 0;
    private Map<Direction, PathNode> adjacentNodes = new HashMap<>();
    private IntPair location = null;

    public PathNode() {
        super();
    }

    public PathNode(IntPair location, int value) {
        super();
        this.location = location;
        this.nodeValue = value;
    }

    public void traceRoute(RouteRegistry routeRegistry, PathNode fromNode) {
        if (!this.isStartNode()) {
            for (Entry<Direction, PathNode> entry : this.adjacentNodes.entrySet()) {
                PathNode node = entry.getValue(); 
                if (!node.equals(fromNode)) {
                    routeRegistry.put(this.location);
                    node.traceRoute(routeRegistry, this);
                }
            }
        } else {
            routeRegistry.put(this.location);
        }
    }

    public int getNodeValue() {
        return this.nodeValue;
    }

    public void setNodeValue(int value) {
        this.nodeValue = value;
    }

    public void setAdjacentNode(Direction direction, PathNode node) {
        this.adjacentNodes.put(direction, node);
    }

    public PathNode getAdjacentNode(Direction direction) {
        return this.adjacentNodes.get(direction);
    }

    public IntPair getLocation() {
        return location;
    }

    public void setLocation(IntPair location) {
        this.location = location;
    }

    public boolean isStartNode() {
        boolean returnValue = false;

        if (location != null) {
            returnValue = (location.getValue(0) == 0 && location.getValue(1) == 0);
        }

        return returnValue;
    }

    public boolean isDestinationNode() {
        return (this.getNodeValue() == 9);
    }
}

class IntPair {
    private Integer[] values = new Integer[2];

    public IntPair() {
        super();
    }

    public IntPair(Integer value1, Integer value2) {
        super();
        this.values[0] = value1;
        this.values[1] = value2;
    }

    public Integer getValue(int index) {
        return this.values[index];
    }

    public void setValue(int index, int value) {
        this.values[index] = value;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "[" + this.values[0] + ", " + this.values[1] + "]";
    }
}

class RouteRegistry {
    private int routeIndex = 1;
    private Map <String, List<IntPair>> routesMap = new HashMap<>();

    public RouteRegistry() {
        super();
    }

    public void put(IntPair point) {
        String activeRouteKey = String.format("Route %d", routeIndex);
        routesMap.computeIfAbsent(activeRouteKey, k -> new ArrayList<IntPair>());

        List<IntPair> routePoints = routesMap.get(activeRouteKey);
        routePoints.add(point);

        if (point.getValue(0) == 0 && point.getValue(1) == 0) {
            routeIndex++;
        }
    }

    public IntPair[] getShortestRoute() {
        IntPair[] routeArray = null;

        List<IntPair> shortestRoute = null;
        for (Entry<String, List<IntPair>> routeEntry :  routesMap.entrySet()) {
            List<IntPair> route = routeEntry.getValue();

            if (shortestRoute == null || shortestRoute.size() > route.size()) {
                shortestRoute = route;
            }
        }

        if (shortestRoute != null) {
            routeArray = shortestRoute.toArray(new IntPair[shortestRoute.size()]);
        } else {
            routeArray = new IntPair[0];
        }

        return routeArray;
    }

    public IntPair[] getLongestRoute() {
        IntPair[] routeArray = null;

        List<IntPair> longestRoute = null;
        for (Entry<String, List<IntPair>> routeEntry :  routesMap.entrySet()) {
            List<IntPair> route = routeEntry.getValue();

            if (longestRoute == null || longestRoute.size() < route.size()) {
                longestRoute = route;
            }
        }

        if (longestRoute != null) {
            routeArray = longestRoute.toArray(new IntPair[longestRoute.size()]);
        } else {
            routeArray = new IntPair[0];
        }

        return routeArray;
    }
}

Answer 2

The most efficient algorithm for this type of problem is BFS (Breadth-first search) if the cost for going from one point to another point is fixed. If the cost is variable but positive then you need to use Dijkstra Algorithm and if there have possibilities of negative cost, Bellman-Ford algorithm would be the right choice.

One more thing, to make yourself comfortable with this type of problem, one way is to solve this type of problem more. You will find this type of problem in this site.