#1887
Reduction Operations to Make the Array Elements Equal
pupil · 525 · lc medium +28 · verified · 72.5% accepted · 1,274 likes · top 82%
Description
Given an integer array nums, apply the following repeatedly until all elements are equal:
- Find the maximum value in nums. Call it largest (if a tie, use the smallest index).
- Find the second-largest distinct value; call it nextLargest.
- Reduce largest to nextLargest.
Return the total number of operations performed.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [5,1,3]
Output: 3
Explanation: It takes 3 operations to make all elements in nums equal:
1. largest = 5 at index 0. nextLargest = 3. Reduce nums[0] to 3. nums = [3,1,3].
2. largest = 3 at index 0. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[0] to 1. nums = [1,1,3].
3. largest = 3 at index 2. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[2] to 1. nums = [1,1,1].
Example 2:
Input: nums = [1,1,1]
Output: 0
Explanation: All elements in nums are already equal.
Example 3:
Input: nums = [1,1,2,2,3]
Output: 4
Explanation: It takes 4 operations to make all elements in nums equal:
1. largest = 3 at index 4. nextLargest = 2. Reduce nums[4] to 2. nums = [1,1,2,2,2].
2. largest = 2 at index 2. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[2] to 1. nums = [1,1,1,2,2].
3. largest = 2 at index 3. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[3] to 1. nums = [1,1,1,1,2].
4. largest = 2 at index 4. nextLargest = 1. Reduce nums[4] to 1. nums = [1,1,1,1,1].
Code
1
2
3