3970. Shortest Path With At Most K Consecutive Identical Characters | Brute force to Optimal

3970. Shortest Path With At Most K Consecutive Identical Characters | Brute Force & Dijkstra In this video, we solve LeetCode 3970: Shortest Path With At Most K Consecutive Identical Characters. We are given a directed weighted graph where each node has a character label. Our task is to find the minimum total edge weight of a path from node 0 to node n - 1 such that the path contains at most K consecutive identical characters. In this video, we solve the problem using two approaches, starting with a brute-force solution and then optimizing it using Dijkstra's Algorithm. Approach 1: Brute Force Generate all possible paths from node 0 to node n - 1. Check whether each path satisfies the constraint of at most K consecutive identical characters. Find the minimum total weight among all valid paths. Understand why generating all possible paths is inefficient. Approach 2: Optimized Solution Using Dijkstra's Algorithm Use Dijkstra's Algorithm to find the shortest valid path. Track consecutive identical characters while exploring the graph. Maintain the necessary state to ensure that every path satisfies the given constraint. Optimize the solution by avoiding the need to generate all possible paths. What You'll Learn Graph traversal and path generation. How to validate paths based on node labels. Dijkstra's Algorithm for shortest-path problems. How to optimize a brute-force solution using a priority queue. How to handle additional constraints in graph algorithms. If you're preparing for coding interviews or practicing graph problems on LeetCode, this problem is a great exercise in understanding the difference between brute-force and optimized shortest-path algorithms. 👍 If you find this video helpful, don't forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe for more LeetCode solutions and coding interview preparation! #LeetCode #DijkstraAlgorithm #GraphAlgorithms #ShortestPath #JavaScript #CodingInterview #DSA #ProblemSolving