Video Stitching

You are given a series of video clips from a sporting event that lasted T seconds.  These video clips can be overlapping with each other and have varied lengths.

Each video clip clips[i] is an interval: it starts at time clips[i][0] and ends at time clips[i][1].  We can cut these clips into segments freely: for example, a clip [0, 7] can be cut into segments [0, 1] + [1, 3] + [3, 7].

Return the minimum number of clips needed so that we can cut the clips into segments that cover the entire sporting event ([0, T]).  If the task is impossible, return -1.

 

Example 1:

Input: clips = [[0,2],[4,6],[8,10],[1,9],[1,5],[5,9]], T = 10
Output: 3
Explanation: 
We take the clips [0,2], [8,10], [1,9]; a total of 3 clips.
Then, we can reconstruct the sporting event as follows:
We cut [1,9] into segments [1,2] + [2,8] + [8,9].
Now we have segments [0,2] + [2,8] + [8,10] which cover the sporting event [0, 10].

Example 2:

Input: clips = [[0,1],[1,2]], T = 5
Output: -1
Explanation: 
We can't cover [0,5] with only [0,1] and [1,2].

Example 3:

Input: clips = [[0,1],[6,8],[0,2],[5,6],[0,4],[0,3],[6,7],[1,3],[4,7],[1,4],[2,5],[2,6],[3,4],[4,5],[5,7],[6,9]], T = 9
Output: 3
Explanation: 
We can take clips [0,4], [4,7], and [6,9].

Example 4:

Input: clips = [[0,4],[2,8]], T = 5
Output: 2
Explanation: 
Notice you can have extra video after the event ends.

 

Constraints:


Solution:

class Solution {
    public int videoStitching(int[][] clips, int T) {
        Arrays.sort(clips, (a, b) -> a[0] - b[0] != 0 ? a[0] - b[0] : b[1] - a[1]);
        if (clips[0][0] != 0) return -1;
        if (clips[0][1] >= T) return 1;

        List<int[]> arr = new ArrayList();
        arr.add(clips[0]);
        
        // drop clips that have same start but lower end because we would never pick them
        for (int i = 1; i < clips.length; i ++) {
            if (clips[i][0] != arr.get(arr.size() - 1)[0]) {
                arr.add(clips[i]);
            }
        }

        int curr = 0;
        int count = 1;
        while (arr.get(curr)[1] < T) {
            int next = -1;
            for (int i = curr + 1; i < arr.size(); i ++) {
                if (arr.get(i)[0] > arr.get(curr)[0] && arr.get(i)[0] <= arr.get(curr)[1]) {
                    // find the next clip, which can connect to current clip with largest end
                    if (arr.get(i)[1] > arr.get(curr)[1] && (next == -1 || arr.get(i)[1] > arr.get(next)[1])) {
                        next = i;
                    }
                } else {
                    break;
                }
            }
            if (next == -1) return -1;
            if (arr.get(next)[1] >= T) return count + 1;
            count ++;
            curr = next;
        }
        return -1;
    }
}