#5 LeetCode ( Q: (36) Valid Sudoku )

Şerifhan Işıklı
2 min readMar 18, 2020

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Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple Interview ( Technic) Question.

LeetCode Valid Sudoku, Coding Interview Question
Level : Medium
Challenge : 5

Determine if a 9x9 Sudoku board is valid. Only the filled cells need to be validated according to the following rules:

  1. Each row must contain the digits 1-9 without repetition.
  2. Each column must contain the digits 1-9 without repetition.
  3. Each of the 9 3x3 sub-boxes of the grid must contain the digits 1-9 without repetition.

The Sudoku board could be partially filled, where empty cells are filled with the character '.'.

Example 1:

Input:
[
["5","3",".",".","7",".",".",".","."],
["6",".",".","1","9","5",".",".","."],
[".","9","8",".",".",".",".","6","."],
["8",".",".",".","6",".",".",".","3"],
["4",".",".","8",".","3",".",".","1"],
["7",".",".",".","2",".",".",".","6"],
[".","6",".",".",".",".","2","8","."],
[".",".",".","4","1","9",".",".","5"],
[".",".",".",".","8",".",".","7","9"]
]
Output: true

Example 2:

Input:
[
["8","3",".",".","7",".",".",".","."],
["6",".",".","1","9","5",".",".","."],
[".","9","8",".",".",".",".","6","."],
["8",".",".",".","6",".",".",".","3"],
["4",".",".","8",".","3",".",".","1"],
["7",".",".",".","2",".",".",".","6"],
[".","6",".",".",".",".","2","8","."],
[".",".",".","4","1","9",".",".","5"],
[".",".",".",".","8",".",".","7","9"]
]
Output: false
Explanation: Same as Example 1, except with the 5 in the top left corner being
modified to 8. Since there are two 8's in the top left 3x3 sub-box, it is invalid.

Note:

  • A Sudoku board (partially filled) could be valid but is not necessarily solvable.
  • Only the filled cells need to be validated according to the mentioned rules.
  • The given board contain only digits 1-9 and the character '.'.
  • The given board size is always 9x9.

Solution — Java

Goal : 5 / 1000 ( Interview Questions)

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Şerifhan Işıklı
Şerifhan Işıklı

Written by Şerifhan Işıklı

Senior Software Engineer @Dogus Teknoloji.