# Posts tagged as “easy”

You are given an integer array gifts denoting the number of gifts in various piles. Every second, you do the following:

• Choose the pile with the maximum number of gifts.
• If there is more than one pile with the maximum number of gifts, choose any.
• Leave behind the floor of the square root of the number of gifts in the pile. Take the rest of the gifts.

Return the number of gifts remaining after k seconds.

Example 1:

Input: gifts = [25,64,9,4,100], k = 4
Output: 29
Explanation:
The gifts are taken in the following way:
- In the first second, the last pile is chosen and 10 gifts are left behind.
- Then the second pile is chosen and 8 gifts are left behind.
- After that the first pile is chosen and 5 gifts are left behind.
- Finally, the last pile is chosen again and 3 gifts are left behind.
The final remaining gifts are [5,8,9,4,3], so the total number of gifts remaining is 29.


Example 2:

Input: gifts = [1,1,1,1], k = 4
Output: 4
Explanation:
In this case, regardless which pile you choose, you have to leave behind 1 gift in each pile.
That is, you can't take any pile with you.
So, the total gifts remaining are 4.


Constraints:

• 1 <= gifts.length <= 103
• 1 <= gifts[i] <= 109
• 1 <= k <= 103

## Solution: Priority Queue

Keep all numbers in a priority queue (max heap), each time extract the top one (largest one), then put num – sqrt(num) back to the queue.

Tip: We can early return if all the numbers become 1.

Time complexity: O(n + klogn)
Space complexity: O(n)

## C++

You are given a non-negative floating point number rounded to two decimal places celsius, that denotes the temperature in Celsius.

You should convert Celsius into Kelvin and Fahrenheit and return it as an array ans = [kelvin, fahrenheit].

Return the array ansAnswers within 10-5 of the actual answer will be accepted.

Note that:

• Kelvin = Celsius + 273.15
• Fahrenheit = Celsius * 1.80 + 32.00

Example 1:

Input: celsius = 36.50
Output: [309.65000,97.70000]
Explanation: Temperature at 36.50 Celsius converted in Kelvin is 309.65 and converted in Fahrenheit is 97.70.


Example 2:

Input: celsius = 122.11
Output: [395.26000,251.79800]
Explanation: Temperature at 122.11 Celsius converted in Kelvin is 395.26 and converted in Fahrenheit is 251.798.


Constraints:

• 0 <= celsius <= 1000

## Solution: Follow the formulas

Time complexity: O(1)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

You are given a 0-indexed array of positive integers nums. Find the number of triplets (i, j, k) that meet the following conditions:

• 0 <= i < j < k < nums.length
• nums[i]nums[j], and nums[k] are pairwise distinct.
• In other words, nums[i] != nums[j]nums[i] != nums[k], and nums[j] != nums[k].

Return the number of triplets that meet the conditions.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [4,4,2,4,3]
Output: 3
Explanation: The following triplets meet the conditions:
- (0, 2, 4) because 4 != 2 != 3
- (1, 2, 4) because 4 != 2 != 3
- (2, 3, 4) because 2 != 4 != 3
Since there are 3 triplets, we return 3.
Note that (2, 0, 4) is not a valid triplet because 2 > 0.


Example 2:

Input: nums = [1,1,1,1,1]
Output: 0
Explanation: No triplets meet the conditions so we return 0.


Constraints:

• 3 <= nums.length <= 100
• 1 <= nums[i] <= 1000

## Solution 1: Brute Force

Enumerate i, j, k.

Time complexity: O(n3)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

You are given an array of equal-length strings words. Assume that the length of each string is n.

Each string words[i] can be converted into a difference integer array difference[i] of length n - 1 where difference[i][j] = words[i][j+1] - words[i][j] where 0 <= j <= n - 2. Note that the difference between two letters is the difference between their positions in the alphabet i.e. the position of 'a' is 0'b' is 1, and 'z' is 25.

• For example, for the string "acb", the difference integer array is [2 - 0, 1 - 2] = [2, -1].

All the strings in words have the same difference integer array, except one. You should find that string.

Return the string in words that has different difference integer array.

Example 1:

Input: words = ["adc","wzy","abc"]
Output: "abc"
Explanation:
- The difference integer array of "adc" is [3 - 0, 2 - 3] = [3, -1].
- The difference integer array of "wzy" is [25 - 22, 24 - 25]= [3, -1].
- The difference integer array of "abc" is [1 - 0, 2 - 1] = [1, 1].
The odd array out is [1, 1], so we return the corresponding string, "abc".


Example 2:

Input: words = ["aaa","bob","ccc","ddd"]
Output: "bob"
Explanation: All the integer arrays are [0, 0] except for "bob", which corresponds to [13, -13].


Constraints:

• 3 <= words.length <= 100
• n == words[i].length
• 2 <= n <= 20
• words[i] consists of lowercase English letters.

## Solution: Comparing with first string.

Let us pick words[0] as a reference for comparison, assuming it’s valid. If we only found one instance say words[i], that is different than words[0], we know that words[i] is bad, otherwise we should see m – 1 different words which means words[0] itself is bad.

Time complexity: O(m*n)
Space complexity: O(1)

## C++

Given an integer array nums that does not contain any zeros, find the largest positive integer k such that -k also exists in the array.

Return the positive integer k. If there is no such integer, return -1.

Example 1:

Input: nums = [-1,2,-3,3]
Output: 3
Explanation: 3 is the only valid k we can find in the array.


Example 2:

Input: nums = [-1,10,6,7,-7,1]
Output: 7
Explanation: Both 1 and 7 have their corresponding negative values in the array. 7 has a larger value.


Example 3:

Input: nums = [-10,8,6,7,-2,-3]
Output: -1
Explanation: There is no a single valid k, we return -1.


Constraints:

• 1 <= nums.length <= 1000
• -1000 <= nums[i] <= 1000
• nums[i] != 0

## Solution 1: Hashtable

We can do in one pass by checking whether -x in the hashtable and update ans with abs(x) if so.

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(n)

## Solution 2: Sorting

Sort the array by abs(x) in descending order.

[-1,10,6,7,-7,1] becomes = [-1, 1, 6, -7, 7, 10]

Check whether arr[i] = -arr[i-1].

Time complexity: O(nlogn)
Space complexity: O(1)

## Solution 3: Two Pointers

Sort the array.

Let sum = nums[i] + nums[j], sum == 0, we find one pair, if sum < 0, ++i else –j.

Time complexity: O(nlogn)
Space complexity: O(1)