LeetCode #1978 — EASY

Employees Whose Manager Left the Company

Build confidence with an intuition-first walkthrough focused on core interview patterns fundamentals.

The Problem

Problem Statement

Table: Employees

+-------------+----------+
| Column Name | Type     |
+-------------+----------+
| employee_id | int      |
| name        | varchar  |
| manager_id  | int      |
| salary      | int      |
+-------------+----------+
In SQL, employee_id is the primary key for this table.
This table contains information about the employees, their salary, and the ID of their manager. Some employees do not have a manager (manager_id is null).

Find the IDs of the employees whose salary is strictly less than $30000 and whose manager left the company. When a manager leaves the company, their information is deleted from the Employees table, but the reports still have their manager_id set to the manager that left.

Return the result table ordered by employee_id.

The result format is in the following example.

Example 1:

Input:  
Employees table:
+-------------+-----------+------------+--------+
| employee_id | name      | manager_id | salary |
+-------------+-----------+------------+--------+
| 3           | Mila      | 9          | 60301  |
| 12          | Antonella | null       | 31000  |
| 13          | Emery     | null       | 67084  |
| 1           | Kalel     | 11         | 21241  |
| 9           | Mikaela   | null       | 50937  |
| 11          | Joziah    | 6          | 28485  |
+-------------+-----------+------------+--------+
Output: 
+-------------+
| employee_id |
+-------------+
| 11          |
+-------------+

Explanation: 
The employees with a salary less than $30000 are 1 (Kalel) and 11 (Joziah).
Kalel's manager is employee 11, who is still in the company (Joziah).
Joziah's manager is employee 6, who left the company because there is no row for employee 6 as it was deleted.

Step 01

Brute Force Baseline

Problem summary: Table: Employees +-------------+----------+ | Column Name | Type | +-------------+----------+ | employee_id | int | | name | varchar | | manager_id | int | | salary | int | +-------------+----------+ In SQL, employee_id is the primary key for this table. This table contains information about the employees, their salary, and the ID of their manager. Some employees do not have a manager (manager_id is null). Find the IDs of the employees whose salary is strictly less than $30000 and whose manager left the company. When a manager leaves the company, their information is deleted from the Employees table, but the reports still have their manager_id set to the manager that left. Return the result table ordered by employee_id. The result format is in the following example.

Baseline thinking

Start with the most direct exhaustive search. That gives a correctness anchor before optimizing.

Pattern signal: General problem-solving

Example 1

{"headers": {"Employees": ["employee_id", "name", "manager_id", "salary"]}, "rows": {"Employees": [[3, "Mila", 9, 60301], [12, "Antonella", null, 31000], [13, "Emery", null, 67084], [1, "Kalel", 11, 21241], [9, "Mikaela", null, 50937], [11, "Joziah", 6, 28485]]}}

Step 02

Core Insight

What unlocks the optimal approach

No official hints in dataset. Start from constraints and look for a monotonic or reusable state.

Interview move: turn each hint into an invariant you can check after every iteration/recursion step.

Step 03

Algorithm Walkthrough

Iteration Checklist

Define state (indices, window, stack, map, DP cell, or recursion frame).
Apply one transition step and update the invariant.
Record answer candidate when condition is met.
Continue until all input is consumed.

Use the first example testcase as your mental trace to verify each transition.

Step 04

Edge Cases

Minimum Input

Single element / shortest valid input

Validate boundary behavior before entering the main loop or recursion.

Duplicates & Repeats

Repeated values / repeated states

Decide whether duplicates should be merged, skipped, or counted explicitly.

Extreme Constraints

Upper-end input sizes

Re-check complexity target against constraints to avoid time-limit issues.

Invalid / Corner Shape

Empty collections, zeros, or disconnected structures

Handle special-case structure before the core algorithm path.

Step 05

Full Annotated Code

Source-backed implementations are provided below for direct study and interview prep.

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// Auto-generated Java example from rust.
class Solution {
    public void exampleSolution() {
    }
}
// Reference (rust):
// // Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// pub fn sql_example() -> &'static str {
//     r#"
// -- Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// # Write your MySQL query statement below
// SELECT e1.employee_id
// FROM
//     Employees AS e1
//     LEFT JOIN Employees AS e2 ON e1.manager_id = e2.employee_id
// WHERE e1.salary < 30000 AND e1.manager_id IS NOT NULL AND e2.employee_id IS NULL
// ORDER BY 1;
// "#
// }

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// Auto-generated Go example from rust.
func exampleSolution() {
}
// Reference (rust):
// // Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// pub fn sql_example() -> &'static str {
//     r#"
// -- Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// # Write your MySQL query statement below
// SELECT e1.employee_id
// FROM
//     Employees AS e1
//     LEFT JOIN Employees AS e2 ON e1.manager_id = e2.employee_id
// WHERE e1.salary < 30000 AND e1.manager_id IS NOT NULL AND e2.employee_id IS NULL
// ORDER BY 1;
// "#
// }

# Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
# Auto-generated Python example from rust.
def example_solution() -> None:
    return
# Reference (rust):
# // Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
# pub fn sql_example() -> &'static str {
#     r#"
# -- Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
# # Write your MySQL query statement below
# SELECT e1.employee_id
# FROM
#     Employees AS e1
#     LEFT JOIN Employees AS e2 ON e1.manager_id = e2.employee_id
# WHERE e1.salary < 30000 AND e1.manager_id IS NOT NULL AND e2.employee_id IS NULL
# ORDER BY 1;
# "#
# }

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
pub fn sql_example() -> &'static str {
    r#"
-- Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
# Write your MySQL query statement below
SELECT e1.employee_id
FROM
    Employees AS e1
    LEFT JOIN Employees AS e2 ON e1.manager_id = e2.employee_id
WHERE e1.salary < 30000 AND e1.manager_id IS NOT NULL AND e2.employee_id IS NULL
ORDER BY 1;
"#
}

// Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// Auto-generated TypeScript example from rust.
function exampleSolution(): void {
}
// Reference (rust):
// // Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// pub fn sql_example() -> &'static str {
//     r#"
// -- Accepted solution for LeetCode #1978: Employees Whose Manager Left the Company
// # Write your MySQL query statement below
// SELECT e1.employee_id
// FROM
//     Employees AS e1
//     LEFT JOIN Employees AS e2 ON e1.manager_id = e2.employee_id
// WHERE e1.salary < 30000 AND e1.manager_id IS NOT NULL AND e2.employee_id IS NULL
// ORDER BY 1;
// "#
// }

Step 06

Interactive Study Demo

Use this to step through a reusable interview workflow for this problem.

Custom checkpoints (one per line)

Press Step or Run All to begin.

Step 07

Complexity Analysis

Time

O(n)

Space

O(1)

Approach Breakdown

BRUTE FORCE

O(n²) time

O(1) space

Two nested loops check every pair or subarray. The outer loop fixes a starting point, the inner loop extends or searches. For n elements this gives up to n²/2 operations. No extra space, but the quadratic time is prohibitive for large inputs.

OPTIMIZED

O(n) time

O(1) space

Most array problems have an O(n²) brute force (nested loops) and an O(n) optimal (single pass with clever state tracking). The key is identifying what information to maintain as you scan: a running max, a prefix sum, a hash map of seen values, or two pointers.

Shortcut: If you are using nested loops on an array, there is almost always an O(n) solution. Look for the right auxiliary state.

Coach Notes

Common Mistakes

Review these before coding to avoid predictable interview regressions.

Off-by-one on range boundaries

Wrong move: Loop endpoints miss first/last candidate.

Usually fails on: Fails on minimal arrays and exact-boundary answers.

Fix: Re-derive loops from inclusive/exclusive ranges before coding.