Learn AI Create the Future — with Pranay
Main site

LeetCode solutions

3620. Maximum Number of Distinct Elements After Operations

My accepted Python solution to LeetCode problem 3620, Maximum Number of Distinct Elements After Operations, running in 751ms.

  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Python
  • Runtime 751ms
  • Memory 30.9MB

Read the problem on LeetCode View on GitHub

The problem statement is LeetCode’s and stays on their site. What follows is my accepted solution.

Python

Accepted on LeetCode — runtime 751ms, memory 30.9MB, accepted 2026-01-01.

python
class Solution:
    def maxDistinctElements(self, nums: List[int], k: int) -> int:
        nums.sort()
        n = len(nums)
        
        # Greedily assign the smallest possible value to each element
        # Each nums[i] can become nums[i] - k to nums[i] + k
        
        prev = float('-inf')  # Last value we assigned
        distinct = 0
        
        for num in nums:
            # The range for this number is [num - k, num + k]
            # We want to pick the smallest value > prev
            low = num - k
            high = num + k
            
            # The value we assign must be > prev and in [low, high]
            # Pick max(prev + 1, low) if it's <= high
            val = max(prev + 1, low)
            
            if val <= high:
                prev = val
                distinct += 1
            # If val > high, we can't assign a distinct value
        
        return distinct

Source