FastPrep

Description

Solutions

Number of Moves

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Given a chess board of n rows (top to bottom) and n columns (left to right). In each move, a knight moves either:

2 column positions and 1 row position
2 row positions and 1 column position

In other words, a move is 2 steps along one axis and 1 step along a perpendicular axis.

Given a starting position A and ending position B, calculate the minimum number of moves needed by the knight to move from A to B if it is possible. If it is not possible, return -1. All moves must remain within the chess board.

Function Description
Complete the function minMoves in the editor below.

minMoves has the following parameters:

int n: the width and height of the square board
int startRow: the row of the starting location
int startCol: the column of the starting location
int endRow: the row of the target location
int endCol: the column of the target location

Returns
int: a single integer that denotes the number of moves required or -1 if it is not possible to reach the target location.

Example 1:

Input:  n = 10, startRow = 0, startCol = 0, endRow = 0, endCol = 2
Output: 2 
Explanation:
The chessboard is of size 10 x 10.
    
Start at the position (0, 0).
Move 2 steps down and 1 step right to reach the position (2, 1).
Move 1 step right and 2 steps up to reach the position (0, 2).
The minimum number of moves to move from the position (0, 0) to the position (0, 2) is 2.

Example 2:

Input:  n = 9, startRow = 4, startCol = 4, endRow = 4, endCol = 8
Output: 2 
Explanation:
The chesse board has a size of 9 x 9.

Start at the position (startRow, startCol) = (4, 4).

Move 1 step up or down, then 2 steps right to reach either the position (3, 6) or (5, 6).

Move 2 steps right and 1 step down or up as necessary to reach the position (4, 8).

The minimum number of moves to move from the position(4, 4) to the position (4, 8) is 2.

Constraints:

4 ≤ n ≤ 150
0 ≤ startRow, startCol, endRow, endCol < n