334. Increasing Triplet Subsequence

1. Description

Given an integer array nums, return true if there exists a triple of indices (i, j, k) such that i < j < k and nums[i] < nums[j] < nums[k]. If no such indices exists, return false.

2. Example

Example 1

Input: nums = [1,2,3,4,5]
Output: true
Explanation: Any triplet where i < j < k is valid.

Example 2

Input: nums = [5,4,3,2,1]
Output: false
Explanation: No triplet exists.

Example 3

Input: nums = [2,1,5,0,4,6]
Output: true
Explanation: One of the valid triplet is (1, 4, 5), because nums[1] == 1 < nums[4] == 4 < nums[5] == 6.

3. Constraints

  • 1 <= nums.length <= 5 * $10^5$
  • -$2^{31}$ <= nums[i] <= $2^{31}$ - 1

4. Solutions

Greedy

n = nums.size()
Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(1)

class Solution {
public:
    bool increasingTriplet(const vector<int> &nums) {
        int first_num = nums[0], second_num = INT_MAX;
        for (int i = 1; i < nums.size(); ++i) {
            if (nums[i] > second_num) {
                return true;
            } else if (nums[i] > first_num) {
                second_num = nums[i];
            } else {
                first_num = nums[i];
                // Note that second_num may appear before first_num.
                // This does not matter: if a value can serve as second_num,
                // there must exist a smaller value that can act as first_num.
                // We only care about the existence of a valid solution,
                // not the exact indices or values.
            }
        }

        return false;
    }
};
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