LeetcodeMar 19, 2026

Target Sum

Hazrat Ali

Leetcode

You want to build an expression out of nums by adding one of the symbols '+' and '-' before each integer in nums and then concatenate all the integers.

  • For example, if nums = [2, 1], you can add a '+' before 2 and a '-' before 1 and concatenate them to build the expression "+2-1".

Return the number of different expressions that you can build, which evaluates to target.

 

Example 1:

Input: nums = [1,1,1,1,1], target = 3
Output: 5
Explanation: There are 5 ways to assign symbols to make the sum of nums be target 3.
-1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
+1 - 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
+1 + 1 - 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
+1 + 1 + 1 - 1 + 1 = 3
+1 + 1 + 1 + 1 - 1 = 3

Example 2:

Input: nums = [1], target = 1
Output: 1

Solution
var findTargetSumWays = function(nums, target) {
    let memo = new Map();

    function dfs(i, sum) {
        let key = i + "," + sum;
        if (memo.has(key)) return memo.get(key);

        if (i === nums.length) {
            return sum === target ? 1 : 0;
        }

        let add = dfs(i + 1, sum + nums[i]);
        let subtract = dfs(i + 1, sum - nums[i]);

        memo.set(key, add + subtract);
        return memo.get(key);
    }

    return dfs(0, 0);
};



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