In this problem, we're given a list of $N$ integers, with the guarantee that removing exactly one of them can result in a sorted array.
Because removing one of them can result in a sorted array, if we consider the elements that are not in the right order, those must form a sequence that is almost sorted, except that either the minimum element is in the rightmost slot or the maximum element is in the leftmost slot. Consequently, if there are $K$ elements that are out of order, it will take $K-1$ swaps to fix them, since every swap except for the last one can only fix the location of one such element.
import java.io.*; import java.util.*; public class outofplace { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("outofplace.in")); PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter("outofplace.out"))); int n = Integer.parseInt(br.readLine()); int[] height = new int[n]; int[] sorted = new int[n]; for(int i = 0; i < n; i++) { height[i] = Integer.parseInt(br.readLine()); sorted[i] = height[i]; } Arrays.sort(sorted); int swaps = -1; for(int a = 0; a < n; a++) { if(sorted[a] != height[a]) { swaps++; } } swaps = Math.max(0, swaps); pw.println(swaps); pw.close(); } }