TIP102 Unit1 Delete Minimum - codepath/compsci_guides GitHub Wiki

TIP102 Unit 1 Session 2 Standard (Click for link to problem statements)

Problem Highlights

• 💡 Difficulty: Easy
• ⏰ Time to complete: 10 mins
• 🛠️ Topics: Arrays, Iteration, While Loop

U-nderstand

Understand what the interviewer is asking for by using test cases and questions about the problem.

• Established a set (2-3) of test cases to verify their own solution later.
• Established a set (1-2) of edge cases to verify their solution handles complexities.
• Have fully understood the problem and have no clarifying questions.
• Have you verified any Time/Space Constraints for this problem?

• The function delete_minimum_elements() should take a list of integers and continuously remove the minimum element until the list is empty, returning a new list of the removed elements in order.

HAPPY CASE
Input: [5, 3, 2, 4, 1]
Expected Output: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Input: [5, 2, 1, 8, 2]
Expected Output: [1, 2, 2, 5, 8]

EDGE CASE
Input: [1, 1, 1, 1]
Expected Output: [1, 1, 1, 1]

Input: []
Expected Output: []

P-lan

Plan the solution with appropriate visualizations and pseudocode.

General Idea: Define a function that uses a while loop to continuously find and remove the minimum element from the list, appending each removed element to a new list until the original list is empty.

1. Define the function `delete_minimum_elements(hunny_jar_sizes)`.
2. Initialize an empty list `removed_elements` to store the removed elements.
3. Use a while loop to iterate as long as `hunny_jar_sizes` is not empty.
4. Within the loop:
   a. Find the minimum element in `hunny_jar_sizes`.
   b. Append this minimum element to `removed_elements`.
   c. Remove the minimum element from `hunny_jar_sizes`.
5. Return the `removed_elements` list.

⚠️ Common Mistakes

• Forgetting to remove the minimum element from the original list.
• Not handling empty lists correctly.

I-mplement

Implement the code to solve the algorithm.

def delete_minimum_elements(hunny_jar_sizes):
    removed_elements = []
    
    while hunny_jar_sizes:
        min_element = min(hunny_jar_sizes)
        removed_elements.append(min_element)
        hunny_jar_sizes.remove(min_element)
    
    return removed_elements