How should I practice Minimize Sum of Distances to Warehouses?

Start by reading the full statement, solve the visible examples, then compare the pattern against related Amazon online assessment problems in FastPrep.

Is Minimize Sum of Distances to Warehouses associated with Amazon?

FastPrep tags this as a Amazon coding interview or online assessment practice problem when the problem catalog has that company context.

Problem · Array

Minimize Sum of Distances to Warehouses

Learn this problem

● MediumAmazonFULLTIMEOA

See Amazon hiring insights

Problem statement

Amazon has recently established n distribution centers in a new location. They want to set up 2 warehouses to serve these distribution centers. Note that the centers and warehouses are all built along a straight line. A distribution center has its demands met by the warehouse that is closest to it. A logistics team wants to choose the location of the warehouses such that the sum of the distances of the distribution centers to their closest warehouses is minimized.

Given an array dist_centers, that represent the positions of the distribution centers, return the minimum sum of distances to their closest warehouses if the warehouses are positioned optimally.

Function

minSumDistancesToWarehouses(dist_centers: int[]) → int

Complete the function minSumDistancesToWarehouses in the editor.

minSumDistancesToWarehouses has the following parameter:

int[] dist_centers: an array of integers representing the positions of the distribution centers

Returns

int: the minimum sum of distances to their closest warehouses

Examples

Example 1

dist_centers = [1, 6]return = 0

Optimal solution: Place one warehouse at x1 = 1 and the other at x2 = 6. The sum of distances to the nearest warehouse is 0 + 0 = 0.

Example 2

dist_centers = [1, 2, 5, 6]return = 2

Optimal solution: Place one warehouse at x1 = 1 and the other at x2 = 6. The distances to the nearest warehouse are [0, 0, 1, 0], resulting in a total distance sum of 2.

Constraints

⛈️