### Problem A: Print a “staircase” pattern Implement a function that prints a staircase with `n` rows. **Input** - An integer `n (n >= 1)` **Output** - Print `n` lines. - Line `i` (1-indexed) contains `i` items separated by a single space. - **Formatting requirement:** there must be **no trailing space** at the end of any line (i.e., the last item in a line should be printed without an extra delimiter). - You must also write a small set of test cases to verify correctness (including edge cases like `n = 1`). **Follow-up:** modify the staircase so that it prints **consecutive integers across the entire output** (e.g., `1`, then `2`, then `3`, continuing across rows), still respecting the “no trailing delimiter” formatting requirement. --- ### Problem B: Compute mode/median in a constrained distributed setting You have **10 worker nodes**. Each node stores a partition of a dataset of integers locally. You are given only these primitives: - `read_local()` to read bytes from local storage at **10 bytes/second**. - `send(node_id, bytes)` which transmits data at **1 byte/second**. - `recv(node_id, bytes)` which receives data at **1 byte/second**. - `barrier()` for synchronization. **Task** - Design and implement a workable approach to compute the **global mode** (most frequent value) and/or the **global median**. - The interviewer will iterate with you: after you present a correct baseline, you should propose improvements to reduce end-to-end time and communication. **What to discuss while implementing** - What you choose to transmit (raw data vs summaries). - Coordination strategy (central aggregator vs hierarchical reduction). - How your design changes if the value range is small/known vs large/unknown. - How you would validate correctness and measure end-to-end time under the given byte/second cost model.