LeetCode 1436, Easy. Topics: Array, Hash Table, String. View on LeetCode.
Generate this problem as a practice environment: tested reference solution, 14 parametrized pytest cases, and a playground notebook:
Problem
You are given the array paths, where paths[i] = [cityA<sub>i</sub>, cityB<sub>i</sub>] means there exists a direct path going from cityA<sub>i</sub> to cityB<sub>i</sub>. Return the destination city, that is, the city without any path outgoing to another city.
It is guaranteed that the graph of paths forms a line without any loop, therefore, there will be exactly one destination city.
Examples
Constraints
- 1 <= paths.length <= 100
- paths[i].length == 2
- 1 <= cityAi.length, cityBi.length <= 10
- cityAi != cityBi
- All strings consist of lowercase and uppercase English letters and the space character.
Solution
Reference implementation from solution.py on GitHub, full suite in test_solution.py:
Complexity
NeetCode All. Last modified on September 7, 2026