2D Array — DS | HackerRank Solution

Yes, this is a 2D Mario Image.

While going back on my grind with Algos I came across this fun Algo question on HackerRank. Let’s dive in!

Problem Statement

Given a 6*6 2D Array arr:

1 1 1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0

We define an hourglass to be a subset of values with indices falling in this pattern in arr‘s graphical representation:

a b c
  d
e f g

There are 16 hourglasses in arr, and an hourglass sum is the sum of an hourglass’ values. Calculate the hourglass sum for every hourglass in arr, then print the maximum hourglass sum.

For example, given the 2D array:

-9 -9 -9  1 1 1 
 0 -9  0  4 3 2
-9 -9 -9  1 2 3
 0  0  8  6 6 0
 0  0  0 -2 0 0
 0  0  1  2 4 0

We calculate the following 16 hourglass values:

-63, -34, -9, 12, 
-10, 0, 28, 23, 
-27, -11, -2, 10, 
9, 17, 25, 18

Our highest hourglass value is 28 from the hourglass:

0 4 3
  1
8 6 6

Function Description

Complete the function hourglassSum in the editor below. It should return an integer, the maximum hourglass sum in the array.