Data Structures19 sections · 729 units
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Lessons from Two Sum

Complement pattern

What did you learn?

1.1. The "complement lookup" pattern: instead of checking all pairs, for each element check if its complement exists.

2.2. Add to map after checking. This prevents using the same element twice.

3.3. Store value-to-index because you need to return indices, not values. This pattern generalizes: three-sum uses two-sum as a subroutine, four-sum uses three-sum, and so on.