Introduction

Welcome to a captivating session on array manipulation in programming! Today, we'll take you on a journey through a virtual forest represented as an array. Your mission? To find the smallest possible jump size that allows safe passage through the forest without running into any trees. This exercise will help you strengthen your array traversal techniques and problem-solving skills. Let the adventure begin!

Task Statement

Consider an array that symbolizes a dense forest; each index is either 1, indicating a tree, or 0, signifying a clear position. Starting from a fixed initial index and given a specific direction, your objective is to ascertain the smallest possible jump size that enables traversal from the initial position to one of the ends of the array without hitting a tree. Each move you make will be exactly the determined jump size in the given direction.

Keep these pointers in mind:

  • The array of binary integers (0 and 1) depicts the forest.
  • The journey will always commence from a 0 index.
  • The direction is an integer. 1 implies jumping toward larger indices, while -1 denotes jumping toward smaller ones.
  • In situations where there is no jump size that can avoid all trees, return -1 to indicate the impossibility of traversal under these conditions.
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