Code Room
CodingHardcod-g457
Subject Strongly connected componentsLevel Senior–Staff~35 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development, Technology

Question

Given a directed graph with n nodes (0..n-1) and a list of directed edges, condense it into its strongly connected components. In the resulting condensation DAG (one super-node per SCC), return the maximum number of SCCs lying on a single directed path (i.e. the length, in nodes, of the longest chain of components). A graph that is itself one SCC has answer 1. Assume 1 <= n <= 5000.

Implement
scc_condensation_longest_chain(n: int, edges: list[list[int]]) → int
Examples
in[5,[[0,1],[1,2],[2,0],[2,3],[3,4]]]out3
What a strong answer looks like

State your approach and its time/space complexity out loud before you optimize. Handle the edge cases (empty input, duplicates, overflow), and say why you chose this over the brute force. Green tests are the floor, not the grade.

Vibe coding: describe the solution in plain language (or narrate it) and the coach grades your approach. Generating runnable code from your description is coming next.

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.