In this problem, you are tasked with finding the losers of a circular game. The game is played in a circular arrangement, and each round, we eliminate participants in a specific manner.
Given the total number of participants n
, and a step value k
which determines how participants are eliminated, continue eliminating participants every k-th
turn until only one participant remains. You need to return a list of participants who were eliminated in the order they were eliminated.
n
) and the step value (k
) be large numbers?n
is 1? (Since there’s only one participant, no one should be eliminated).n
is a positive integer greater than 0.k
is a positive integer greater than 0.n
.n
.k
.def findLosers(n, k):
# Step 1: Initialize the participants list
participants = list(range(1, n + 1))
eliminated = []
index = 0
# Step 2: Eliminate participants until only one remains
while len(participants) > 1:
# Calculate the index of the participant to eliminate
index = (index + k - 1) % len(participants)
# Remove the participant and add to eliminated list
eliminated.append(participants.pop(index))
# Return the list of eliminated participants
return eliminated
# Example usage:
n = 5
k = 2
print(findLosers(n, k)) # Outputs the order in which participants are eliminated
n - 1
to eliminate participants.The algorithm is effective and clear for smaller values of n
. For larger values, an optimized structure (like a linked list) could be used to improve complexity but isn’t shown here for simplicity.
Got blindsided by a question you didn’t expect?
Spend too much time studying?
Or simply don’t have the time to go over all 3000 questions?