Count Special Subarrays by Modular Frequency
Company: Bytedance
Role: Machine Learning Engineer
Category: Coding & Algorithms
Difficulty: hard
Interview Round: Onsite
Quick Answer: This question evaluates the ability to apply modular arithmetic, frequency tracking, and prefix-count reasoning to efficiently count subarrays that satisfy a congruence condition, testing algorithmic problem-solving and scalable complexity management.
Constraints
- 0 <= len(nums) <= 200000
- 1 <= modulo <= 1000000000
- 0 <= target < modulo
- -1000000000 <= nums[i] <= 1000000000
- Use the mathematical non-negative remainder for modulo comparisons
Examples
Input: ([3, 1, 9, 6], 3, 0)
Expected Output: 2
Explanation: The special elements are 3, 9, and 6. Valid subarrays are [3, 1, 9, 6] with 3 special elements and [1] with 0 special elements; both counts are congruent to 0 mod 3.
Input: ([1, 4, 2, 7, 10], 3, 1)
Expected Output: 7
Explanation: Special elements are those congruent to 1 mod 3. There are 7 subarrays whose number of special elements is congruent to 1 mod 3.
Hints
- Convert the array into a sequence of 0s and 1s, where 1 means the index is special.
- For each prefix count modulo modulo, count how many previous prefix remainders would make the subarray's special count congruent to target.