LeetCode – Longest Consecutive Sequence Java

Given an unsorted array of integers, find the length of the longest consecutive elements sequence.

For example,
Given [100, 4, 200, 1, 3, 2],
The longest consecutive elements sequence is [1, 2, 3, 4]. Return its length: 4.

Your algorithm should run in O(n) complexity.

Thoughts

Because it requires O(n) complexity, we can not solve the problem by sorting the array first. Sorting takes at least O(nlogn) time.

Java Solution 1

We can use a HashSet to add and remove elements. HashSet is implemented by using a hash table. Elements are not ordered. The add, remove and contains methods have constant time complexity O(1).

public int longestConsecutive(int[] num) {
	Set<Integer> set = new HashSet<Integer>();
	int max = 1;
 
	for (int e : num)
		set.add(e);
 
	for (int e : num) {
		int left = e - 1;
		int right = e + 1;
		int count = 1;
 
		while (set.contains(left)) {
			count++;
			set.remove(left);
			left--;
		}
 
		while (set.contains(right)) {
			count++;
			set.remove(right);
			right++;
		}
 
		max = Math.max(count, max);
	}
 
	return max;
}

After an element is checked, it should be removed from the set. Otherwise, time complexity would be O(mn) in which m is the average length of all consecutive sequences.