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LeetCode 994, Medium. Topics: Array, Breadth-First Search, Matrix. View on LeetCode. Generate this problem as a practice environment: tested reference solution, 11 parametrized pytest cases, and a playground notebook:

Problem

You are given an m x n grid where each cell can have one of three values:
  • 0 representing an empty cell,
  • 1 representing a fresh orange, or
  • 2 representing a rotten orange.
Every minute, any fresh orange that is 4-directionally adjacent to a rotten orange becomes rotten. Return the minimum number of minutes that must elapse until no cell has a fresh orange. If this is impossible, return -1.

Examples

Example 1
Explanation: The orange in the bottom left corner (row 2, column 0) is never rotten, because rotting only happens 4-directionally.
Explanation: Since there are already no fresh oranges at minute 0, the answer is just 0.

Constraints

  • m == grid.length
  • n == grid[i].length
  • 1 <= m, n <= 10
  • grid[i][j] is 0, 1, or 2.

Solution

Reference implementation from solution.py on GitHub, full suite in test_solution.py:

Complexity

Tags

Grind 75, Grind, NeetCode 150, NeetCode 250, NeetCode All, AlgoMaster 75.
Last modified on August 25, 2026