2D peak finding algorithm in O(n) worst case time?

Question

I was doing this course on algorithms from MIT. In the very first lecture the professor presents the following problem:-

A peak in a 2D array is a value such that al

Answer 1

Here is the working Java code that implements @maxim1000 's algorithm. The following code finds a peak in the 2D array in linear time.

import java.util.*;

class Ideone{
    public static void main (String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception{
        new Ideone().run();
    }
    int N , M ;

    void run(){
        N = 1000;
        M = 100;

        // arr is a random NxM array
        int[][] arr = randomArray();
        long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
//      for(int i=0; i= 0){
            for(int row = loRow; row<=hiRow; row++){
                if(arr[row][midCol-1] > max){
                    max = arr[row][midCol-1];
                    centralMax = false;
                    leftMax = true;
                }
            }
        }

        if(midCol+1 < M){
            for(int row=loRow; row<=hiRow; row++){
                if(arr[row][midCol+1] > max){
                    max = arr[row][midCol+1];
                    centralMax = false;
                    leftMax = false;
                    rightMax = true;
                }
            }
        }

        if(centralMax) return max;
        if(rightMax)  return kthLinearRow(arr, midCol+1, hiCol, loRow, hiRow);
        if(leftMax)   return kthLinearRow(arr, loCol, midCol-1, loRow, hiRow);
        throw new RuntimeException("INCORRECT CODE");
    }

    // helper function that splits on the middle 
    int kthLinearRow(int[][] arr, int loCol, int hiCol, int loRow, int hiRow){
        if(loRow==hiRow){
            int ans = arr[loCol][loRow];
            int foundCol = loCol;
            for(int col=loCol; col<=hiCol; col++){
                if(arr[loRow][col] > ans){
                    ans = arr[loRow][col];
                    foundCol = col;
                }
            }
            if(!correctPeak(arr, loRow, foundCol)){
                System.out.println("THIS PEAK IS WRONG");
            }
            return ans;
        }
        boolean centralMax = true;
        boolean upperMax = false;
        boolean lowerMax = false;

        int midRow = (loRow+hiRow)/2;
        int max = arr[midRow][loCol];

        for(int col=loCol; col<=hiCol; col++){
            max = Math.max(max, arr[midRow][col]);
        }

        if(midRow-1>=0){
            for(int col=loCol; col<=hiCol; col++){
                if(arr[midRow-1][col] > max){
                    max = arr[midRow-1][col];
                    upperMax = true;
                    centralMax = false;
                }
            }
        }

        if(midRow+1 max){
                    max = arr[midRow+1][col];
                    lowerMax = true;
                    centralMax = false;
                    upperMax   = false;
                }
            }
        }

        if(centralMax) return max;
        if(lowerMax)   return kthLinearColumn(arr, loCol, hiCol, midRow+1, hiRow);
        if(upperMax)   return kthLinearColumn(arr, loCol, hiCol, loRow, midRow-1);
        throw new RuntimeException("Incorrect code");
    }

    int[][] randomArray(){
        int[][] arr = new int[N][M];
        for(int i=0; i=0 && arr[row-1][col]>arr[row][col])  return false;
        if(row+1arr[row][col])   return false;
        if(col-1>=0 && arr[row][col-1]>arr[row][col])  return false;
        if(col+1arr[row][col])   return false;
        return true;
    }
}