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Gas Station

Explore how to determine the starting point in a circular route of gas stations where a car with an empty tank can complete the trip. Understand the algorithm that uses gas and cost arrays to track fuel availability and reset starting points when necessary. This lesson explains the logic, proof, and complexity of the solution, helping you master an important interview problem involving array manipulation and greedy strategies.

Description

Suppose there are n gas stations identified by integers 0, 1, . . ., n-1, where the amount of gas at the ithi^{th} station is gas[i]. Imagine that these gas stations are arranged clockwise in a circle, as shown below.

You have a car with an unlimited gas tank. It costs cost[i] amount of gas to travel from the ithi^{th} station to the (i+1)th(i + 1)^{th} ...