FastPrep
Problem · Heap

Remove Stones to Minimize the Total (LC 1962 :)

Learn this problem
● EasySnowflakeINTERNOA
See Snowflake hiring insights

Problem statement

You are given a 0-indexed integer array piles, where piles[i] represents the number of stones in the ith pile, and an integer k. You should apply the following operation exactly k times:

• Choose any piles[i] and remove floor(piles[i] / 2) stones from it.

Notice that you can apply the operation on the same pile more than once.

Return the minimum possible total number of stones remaining after applying the k operations.

floor(x) is the greatest integer that is smaller than or equal to x (i.e., rounds x down).

(ෆ˙ᵕ˙ෆ)♡ The incredible Lie carries!

Function

minStoneSum(piles: int[], k: int) → int

Examples

Example 1

piles = [5, 4, 9]k = 2return = 12

Steps of a possible scenario are:

- Apply the operation on pile 2. The resulting piles are [5,4,5].

- Apply the operation on pile 0. The resulting piles are [3,4,5].

The total number of stones in [3,4,5] is 12.

Example 2

piles = [4, 3, 6, 7]k = 3return = 12

Steps of a possible scenario are:

- Apply the operation on pile 2. The resulting piles are [4,3,3,7].

- Apply the operation on pile 3. The resulting piles are [4,3,3,4].

- Apply the operation on pile 0. The resulting piles are [2,3,3,4].

The total number of stones in [2,3,3,4] is 12.

Constraints

  • 1 <= piles.length <= 10^5
  • 1 <= piles[i] <= 10^4
  • 1 <= k <= 10^5

More Snowflake problems

drafts saved locally
public int minStoneSum(int[] piles, int k) {
  // write your code here
}
piles[5, 4, 9]
k2
expected12
checking account