Remove one element to make the array strictly increasing

Array

29.6% acceptance

Feb 25, 2026

1316

348

Given a 0-indexed integer array nums, return true if it can be made strictly increasing after removing exactly one element, or false otherwise. If the array is already strictly increasing, return true. The array nums is strictly increasing if nums[i - 1] < nums[i] for each index (1 <= i < nums.length).

Solution

Rust

Time O(n)

Space O(1)

LeetCode

solution.rs

impl Solution {
  pub fn can_be_increasing(nums: Vec<i32>) -> bool {
    let check = |skip: usize| -> bool {
      let mut prev = i32::MIN;
      for (i, &v) in nums.iter().enumerate() {
        if i == skip { continue; }
        if v <= prev { return false; }
        prev = v;
      }
      true
    };
    for i in 1..nums.len() {
      if nums[i] <= nums[i - 1] {
        return check(i) || check(i - 1);
      }
    }
    true
  }
}