LeetCode #744 — EASY

Find Smallest Letter Greater Than Target

Build confidence with an intuition-first walkthrough focused on array fundamentals.

The Problem

Problem Statement

You are given an array of characters letters that is sorted in non-decreasing order, and a character target. There are at least two different characters in letters.

Return the smallest character in letters that is lexicographically greater than target. If such a character does not exist, return the first character in letters.

Example 1:

Input: letters = ["c","f","j"], target = "a"
Output: "c"
Explanation: The smallest character that is lexicographically greater than 'a' in letters is 'c'.

Example 2:

Input: letters = ["c","f","j"], target = "c"
Output: "f"
Explanation: The smallest character that is lexicographically greater than 'c' in letters is 'f'.

Example 3:

Input: letters = ["x","x","y","y"], target = "z"
Output: "x"
Explanation: There are no characters in letters that is lexicographically greater than 'z' so we return letters[0].

Constraints:

2 <= letters.length <= 10⁴
letters[i] is a lowercase English letter.
letters is sorted in non-decreasing order.
letters contains at least two different characters.
target is a lowercase English letter.

Step 01

Brute Force Baseline

Problem summary: You are given an array of characters letters that is sorted in non-decreasing order, and a character target. There are at least two different characters in letters. Return the smallest character in letters that is lexicographically greater than target. If such a character does not exist, return the first character in letters.

Baseline thinking

Start with the most direct exhaustive search. That gives a correctness anchor before optimizing.

Pattern signal: Array · Binary Search

Example 1

["c","f","j"]
"a"

Example 2

["c","f","j"]
"c"

Example 3

["x","x","y","y"]
"z"

Core Insight

What unlocks the optimal approach

Try to find whether each of 26 next letters are in the given string array.

Interview move: turn each hint into an invariant you can check after every iteration/recursion step.

Step 03

Algorithm Walkthrough

Iteration Checklist

Define state (indices, window, stack, map, DP cell, or recursion frame).
Apply one transition step and update the invariant.
Record answer candidate when condition is met.
Continue until all input is consumed.

Use the first example testcase as your mental trace to verify each transition.

Step 04

Edge Cases

Minimum Input

Single element / shortest valid input

Validate boundary behavior before entering the main loop or recursion.

Duplicates & Repeats

Repeated values / repeated states

Decide whether duplicates should be merged, skipped, or counted explicitly.

Extreme Constraints

Upper-end input sizes

Re-check complexity target against constraints to avoid time-limit issues.

Invalid / Corner Shape

Empty collections, zeros, or disconnected structures

Handle special-case structure before the core algorithm path.

Step 05

Full Annotated Code

Source-backed implementations are provided below for direct study and interview prep.

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #744: Find Smallest Letter Greater Than Target
class Solution {
    public char nextGreatestLetter(char[] letters, char target) {
        int i = Arrays.binarySearch(letters, (char) (target + 1));
        i = i < 0 ? -i - 1 : i;
        return letters[i % letters.length];
    }
}

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #744: Find Smallest Letter Greater Than Target
func nextGreatestLetter(letters []byte, target byte) byte {
	i := sort.Search(len(letters), func(i int) bool { return letters[i] > target })
	return letters[i%len(letters)]
}

# Accepted solution for LeetCode #744: Find Smallest Letter Greater Than Target
class Solution:
    def nextGreatestLetter(self, letters: List[str], target: str) -> str:
        i = bisect_right(letters, ord(target), key=lambda c: ord(c))
        return letters[i % len(letters)]

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #744: Find Smallest Letter Greater Than Target
impl Solution {
    pub fn next_greatest_letter(letters: Vec<char>, target: char) -> char {
        let mut l = 0;
        let mut r = letters.len();
        while l < r {
            let mid = l + (r - l) / 2;
            if letters[mid] > target {
                r = mid;
            } else {
                l = mid + 1;
            }
        }
        letters[l % letters.len()]
    }
}

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #744: Find Smallest Letter Greater Than Target
function nextGreatestLetter(letters: string[], target: string): string {
    const idx = _.sortedIndex(letters, target + '\0');
    return letters[idx % letters.length];
}

Step 06

Interactive Study Demo

Use this to step through a reusable interview workflow for this problem.

Custom checkpoints (one per line)

Press Step or Run All to begin.

Step 07

Complexity Analysis

Time

O(log n)

Space

O(1)

Approach Breakdown

LINEAR SCAN

O(n) time

O(1) space

Check every element from left to right until we find the target or exhaust the array. Each comparison is O(1), and we may visit all n elements, giving O(n). No extra space needed.

BINARY SEARCH

O(log n) time

O(1) space

Each comparison eliminates half the remaining search space. After k comparisons, the space is n/2ᵏ. We stop when the space is 1, so k = log₂ n. No extra memory needed — just two pointers (lo, hi).

Shortcut: Halving the input each step → O(log n). Works on any monotonic condition, not just sorted arrays.

Coach Notes

Common Mistakes

Review these before coding to avoid predictable interview regressions.

Off-by-one on range boundaries

Wrong move: Loop endpoints miss first/last candidate.

Usually fails on: Fails on minimal arrays and exact-boundary answers.

Fix: Re-derive loops from inclusive/exclusive ranges before coding.

Boundary update without `+1` / `-1`

Wrong move: Setting `lo = mid` or `hi = mid` can stall and create an infinite loop.

Usually fails on: Two-element ranges never converge.

Fix: Use `lo = mid + 1` or `hi = mid - 1` where appropriate.