As a very important precursor, I’d like to voice my aversion to LC827 Making a Large Island.

It’s asked in both phone screen and onsite coding rounds, and it’s almost always expected you solve this and another Leetcode problem. If you didn’t already know, this question demands upwards 60 lines of code, which eats up a lot of the allotted 45 minutes.

Its variant is no different: What if you had to make a large, isolated island? Meaning, the created island cannot touch any other existing islands. Even with an extracted, reusable function, my solution’s 50 lines long - it can certainly be more tidy though.

Check it out (or not!):

Leetcode 827, Making a Large Island (Link)

Reference to all of the Meta Variants, Playlists & Unknowns: https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/6615244/meta-variant-compilation-by-codingwithmi-0pm7/