2467. Most Profitable Path in a Tree
Description
There is an undirected tree with n
nodes labeled from 0
to n - 1
, rooted at node 0
. You are given a 2D integer array edges
of length n - 1
where edges[i] = [ai, bi]
indicates that there is an edge between nodes ai
and bi
in the tree.
At every node i
, there is a gate. You are also given an array of even integers amount
, where amount[i]
represents:
- the price needed to open the gate at node
i
, ifamount[i]
is negative, or, - the cash reward obtained on opening the gate at node
i
, otherwise.
The game goes on as follows:
- Initially, Alice is at node
0
and Bob is at nodebob
. - At every second, Alice and Bob each move to an adjacent node. Alice moves towards some leaf node, while Bob moves towards node
0
. - For every node along their path, Alice and Bob either spend money to open the gate at that node, or accept the reward. Note that:
- If the gate is already open, no price will be required, nor will there be any cash reward.
- If Alice and Bob reach the node simultaneously, they share the price/reward for opening the gate there. In other words, if the price to open the gate is
c
, then both Alice and Bob payc / 2
each. Similarly, if the reward at the gate isc
, both of them receivec / 2
each.
- If Alice reaches a leaf node, she stops moving. Similarly, if Bob reaches node
0
, he stops moving. Note that these events are independent of each other.
Return the maximum net income Alice can have if she travels towards the optimal leaf node.
Example 1:

Input: edges = [[0,1],[1,2],[1,3],[3,4]], bob = 3, amount = [-2,4,2,-4,6] Output: 6 Explanation: The above diagram represents the given tree. The game goes as follows: - Alice is initially on node 0, Bob on node 3. They open the gates of their respective nodes. Alice's net income is now -2. - Both Alice and Bob move to node 1. Since they reach here simultaneously, they open the gate together and share the reward. Alice's net income becomes -2 + (4 / 2) = 0. - Alice moves on to node 3. Since Bob already opened its gate, Alice's income remains unchanged. Bob moves on to node 0, and stops moving. - Alice moves on to node 4 and opens the gate there. Her net income becomes 0 + 6 = 6. Now, neither Alice nor Bob can make any further moves, and the game ends. It is not possible for Alice to get a higher net income.
Example 2:

Input: edges = [[0,1]], bob = 1, amount = [-7280,2350] Output: -7280 Explanation: Alice follows the path 0->1 whereas Bob follows the path 1->0. Thus, Alice opens the gate at node 0 only. Hence, her net income is -7280.
Constraints:
2 <= n <= 105
edges.length == n - 1
edges[i].length == 2
0 <= ai, bi < n
ai != bi
edges
represents a valid tree.1 <= bob < n
amount.length == n
amount[i]
is an even integer in the range[-104, 104]
.
Solutions
Solution: Depth-First Search
- Time complexity: O(n)
- Space complexity: O(n)
JavaScript
js
/**
* @param {number[][]} edges
* @param {number} bob
* @param {number[]} amount
* @return {number}
*/
const mostProfitablePath = function (edges, bob, amount) {
const n = amount.length;
const graph = Array.from({ length: n }, () => []);
const bobPath = Array.from({ length: n }, () => -1);
for (const [a, b] of edges) {
graph[a].push(b);
graph[b].push(a);
}
const findBobPath = (node, parent, second) => {
bobPath[node] = second;
if (node === 0) return true;
for (const nextNode of graph[node]) {
if (nextNode === parent) continue;
if (findBobPath(nextNode, node, second + 1)) return true;
}
bobPath[node] = -1;
return false;
};
const getIncome = (alice, bob, income) => {
if (alice === bob) return income / 2;
if (alice < bob || bob === -1) return income;
return 0;
};
const travelsTowards = (node, parent, second) => {
const income = getIncome(second, bobPath[node], amount[node]);
let result = Number.MIN_SAFE_INTEGER;
for (const nextNode of graph[node]) {
if (nextNode === parent) continue;
const nextIncome = travelsTowards(nextNode, node, second + 1);
result = Math.max(nextIncome, result);
}
return income + (result === Number.MIN_SAFE_INTEGER ? 0 : result);
};
findBobPath(bob, -1, 0);
return travelsTowards(0, -1, 0);
};