Leetcode•Feb 26, 2026
Distance Between Bus Stops
Hazrat Ali
Leetcode
A bus has n stops numbered from 0 to n - 1 that form a circle. We know the distance between all pairs of neighboring stops where distance[i] is the distance between the stops number i and (i + 1) % n.
The bus goes along both directions i.e. clockwise and counterclockwise.
Return the shortest distance between the given start and destination stops.
Example 1:
Input: distance = [1,2,3,4], start = 0, destination = 1 Output: 1 Explanation: Distance between 0 and 1 is 1 or 9, minimum is 1.
Example 2:
Input: distance = [1,2,3,4], start = 0, destination = 2 Output: 3 Explanation: Distance between 0 and 2 is 3 or 7, minimum is 3.
Example 3:
Input: distance = [1,2,3,4], start = 0, destination = 3 Output: 4 Explanation: Distance between 0 and 3 is 6 or 4, minimum is 4.
Solution
var distanceBetweenBusStops = function(distance, start, destination) {
if (start > destination) {
[start, destination] = [destination, start];
}
let totalDistance = 0;
let clockwiseDistance = 0;
for (let i = 0; i < distance.length; i++) {
totalDistance += distance[i];
if (i >= start && i < destination) {
clockwiseDistance += distance[i];
}
}
let counterClockwiseDistance = totalDistance - clockwiseDistance;
return Math.min(clockwiseDistance, counterClockwiseDistance);
};