A test interview question I could not figure out - python

So I wrote a piece of code in pycharm
to solve this problem:
pick any 5 positive integers that add up to 100
and by addition,subtraction or just using one of the five values
you should be able to make every number up to 100
for example
1,22,2,3,4
for 1 I could give in 1
for 2 i could give in 2
so on
for 21 I could give 22 - 1
for 25 I could give (22 + 2) - 1
li = [1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
lists_of_li_that_pass_T1 = []
while True:
if sum(li) == 100:
list_of_li_that_pass_T1.append(li)
if li[-1] != 100:
li[-1] += 1
else:
li[-1] = 1
if li[-2] != 100:
li[-2] += 1
else:
li[-2] = 1
if li[-3] != 100:
li[-3] += 1
else:
li[-3] = 1
if li[-4] != 100:
li[-4] += 1
else:
li[-4] = 1
if li[-5] != 100:
li[-5] += 1
else:
break
else:
if li[-1] != 100:
li[-1] += 1
else:
li[-1] = 1
if li[-2] != 100:
li[-2] += 1
else:
li[-2] = 1
if li[-3] != 100:
li[-3] += 1
else:
li[-3] = 1
if li[-4] != 100:
li[-4] += 1
else:
li[-4] = 1
if li[-5] != 100:
li[-5] += 1
else:
break
this should give me all the number combinations that add up to 100 out of the total 1*10 ** 10
but its not working please help me fix it so it prints all of the sets of integers
I also can't think of what I would do next to get the perfect sets that solve the problem

After #JohnY comments, I assume that the question is:
Find a set of 5 integers meeting the following requirements:
their sum is 100
any number in the [1, 100] range can be constructed using at most once the elements of the set and only additions and substractions
A brute force way is certainly possible, but proving that any number can be constructed that way would be tedious. But a divide and conquer strategy is possible: to construct all numbers up to n with a set of m numbers u0..., um-1, it is enough to build all numbers up to (n+2)/3 with u0..., um-2 and use um-1 = 2*n/3. Any number in the ((n+2)/3, um-1) range can be written as um-1-x with x in the [1, (n+2)/3] range, and any number in the (um-1, n] range as um-1+y with y in the same low range.
So we can use here u4 = 66 and find a way to build numbers up to 34 with 4 numbers.
Let us iterate: u3 = 24 and build numbers up to 12 with 3 numbers.
One more step u2 = 8 and build numbers up to 4 with 2 numbers.
Ok: u0 = 1 and u1 = 3 give immediately:
1 = u0
2 = 3 - 1 = u1 - u0
3 = u1
4 = 3 + 1 = u1 + u0
Done.
Mathematical disgression:
In fact u0 = 1 and u1 = 3 can build all numbers up to 4, so we can use u2 = 9 to build all numbers up to 9+4 = 13. We can prove easily that the sequence ui = 3i verifies sum(ui for i in [0, m-1]) = 1 + 3 + ... + 3m-1 = (3m - 1)/(3 - 1) = (um - 1) / 2.
So we could use u0=1, u1=3, u2=9, u3=27 to build all numbers up to 40, and finally set u4 = 60.
In fact, u0 and u1 can only be 1 and 3 and u2 can be 8 or 9. Then if u2 == 8, u3 can be in the [22, 25] range, and if u2 == 9, u3 can be in the [21, 27] range. The high limit is given by the 3i sequence, and the low limit is given by the requirement to build numbers up to 12 with 3 numbers, and up to 34 with 4 ones.
No code was used, but I think that way much quicker and less error prone. It is now possible to use Python to show that all numbers up to 100 can be constructed from one of those sets using the divide and conquer strategy.

Related

Find the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 1000. (idk what is wrong with my code)

I'm a beginner and I tried this code to list the sum of all the multiples of 3 or 5 below 100, but it gives a wrong answer and I don't know why.
result = 0
result2 = 0
som = 0
sum2 = 0
below_1000 = True
while below_1000:
result = result+3
if result < 1000:
som += result
else:
below_1000 = False
below_1000 = True
while below_1000:
result2 = result2+5
if result2 < 1000:
sum2 += result2
else:
below_1000 = False
final_result = som+sum2
print(final_result)
Since you first loop over multiples of 3, then again over multiples of 5, you are double-counting a lot of values, specifically values that are multiples of both 3 and 5 (for example 15 or 60).
To write this manually, you can use a for loop over range
total = 0
for i in range(1000):
if i % 3 == 0 or i % 5 == 0:
total += i
>>> total
233168
A more concise way to do this same thing is using a generator expression within the sum function
>>> sum(i for i in range(1000) if i % 3 == 0 or i % 5 == 0)
233168

Divide a number into smaller specific numbers

I want to create a program that takes in an input from a user and returns the value in bills
i.e. if the input is 110, I would want to program to output:
1 x 100
1 x 10
and if the input is 87 I want to program to output
4 x 20
1 x 5
2 x 1
etc. Anyone know how to do this?
You can use integer division to get the how often each bill fits.
bills = [20, 5, 1]
input = 87
for bill in bills:
integer_div = input // bill
if integer_div > 0:
print(f'{integer_div} x {bill}')
input -= integer_div * bill
Result
4 x 20
1 x 5
2 x 1
def change(amount, bills):
money = {}
for bill in bills:
bill_count = amount/bill
money[bill] = bill_count
amount -= bill * bill_count
return money
result = change(87, [20, 5, 1])
for coin, amount in result.items():
if amount != 0:
print("%d X %d" % (amount, coin))
will make the required result.

How do I solve this: "Step forward and backward problem"?

The Problem Statement:
Sanjay is addicted to alcohol. Every night he drinks 4 bottles of vodka. He is going to his home. At first, he takes a step forward (which is 5m) but beacuse he is drunk, after his each step in forward direction, his body gets imbalanced and he takes a step backward (which is 3m).
Each step takes 1 min to complete. The distance from the bar to home is n metres. Calculate the time taken by him to reach his home.
Input Format:
single line containing one integer n.
Constraints:
0 <= n < 10^18
Output Format
single integer describing the time taken by him to reach home.
from math import *
n = int(input())
x = 0
m = 0
n = n % 1000000007
n = n % 1000000007
while x < n:
x += 5
m += 1
if x >= n:
break
x -= 3
m += 1
print(m)
But the time limit is exceeding in the last test case i.e. for n = 10^18 like numbers
Sample Input 0
11
Sample Output 0
7
The time taken is simply n/2 * 2
He advances 2 meters each "cycle" 5 forward 3 back
So we see how many "cycles" go into n (n / 2m) this will result
In the number of "cycles" taken to reach his house
Then we simply multiply by the amount of time taken per cycle (2 minutes)
to get the total time taken (t = n/2 * 2).
Try reducing the problem. Let time_taken(dist) be the function that tells us how long it takes to get home. Then the following hold:
time_taken(1) == 1
time_taken(2) == 1
time_taken(3) == 1
time_taken(4) == 1
time_taken(5) == 1
time_taken(6) == 1 * 2 + time_taken(4) (since 5-3 = 2)
== 1 * 2 + 1
time_taken(7) == 1 * 2 + time_taken(5)
== 1 * 2 + 1
time_taken(11) == 1 * 2 + time_taken(9)
== 2 * 2 + time_taken(7)
== 3 * 2 + time_taken(5)
== 3 * 2 + 1
time_taken(26) == 1 * 2 + time_taken(24)
== 2 * 2 + time_taken(22)
== ...
== 11 * 2 + time_taken(4)
== 11 * 2 + 1
if n > 5:
time_taken(n) == 1 * 2 + time_taken(n - 2)
== 2 * 2 + time_taken(n - 4)
== ...
== (formula here) * 2 + time_taken(4 or 5)

Binsary Search (BSEARCH1)

I was going through this problem on SPOJ.
It is a problem about binary search.
I tried to implement this in python:
x,yu= input().split()
bu=int(yu)
y=int(yu)
array=input().split()
while y>0:
qquery=input()
y=y-1
query=int(qquery)
b= int(x)
left=1
right= b
while left <= right and bu>0:
pmid=((right+left)/2-1)
mid=int(pmid)
fir=array[mid]
fire=int(fir)
if fire== query:
bu=bu-1
if query < fire:
left=mid+1
else :
right=mid-1
this is the input:
5 4
2 4 7 7 9
7
10
4
2
I am getting an infinite loop with 3.
I have been stuck on this problem for a long time. I would really like someone to point out my mistake, the solution and the explanation.
Thank you!!
Try this code if you're looking for the binary search algorithm.
def binary_search(seq, t):
min = 0
max = len(seq) - 1
while True:
if max < min:
return -1
m = (min + max) // 2
if seq[m] < t:
min = m + 1
elif seq[m] > t:
max = m - 1
else:
return m
seq = [1, 2, 3, 4]
t = 2
binary_search(seq, t)

Python times table using while

Why in python a times table program doesn't work like this?
n = int(input("Type a number: "))
count = 10
while count < 0:
print(f"{count} x {n} = {n * count}")
count = count - 1
But this works correctly:
n = int(input("Type a number: "))
for i in range(1, 11):
print(f"{i} x {n} = {n * i}")
The result is (or should be), for example:
1 x 5 = 5
2 x 5 = 10
3 x 5 = 15
4 x 5 = 20
5 x 5 = 25
6 x 5 = 30
7 x 5 = 35
8 x 5 = 40
9 x 5 = 45
10 x 5 = 50
As a beginner I need to understand... and is it possible to use while in that situation?
This is python 3.x
You want to start count from 1 so that your loop increments rather than decrements. Your while loop conditional check is also incorrect as count is never less than 0. Try this:
n = int(input("Type a number: "))
count = 1
while count <= 10:
print(f"{count} x {n} = {n * count}")
count = count + 1
You need to set the condition in the while to be true to go through the loop. Thus we will say do while count is greater than or equal to zero.
n = int(input("Type a number: "))
count = 10
while count >= 0:
print(f"{count} x {n} = {n * count}")
count = count - 1

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