How do I practice coding and algorithm questions?

Use PracHub's coding console to write, test, and debug your solutions in Python or JavaScript. View hints, test against sample inputs, and compare with official solutions.

What difficulty level is this coding question?

This is a easy difficulty Coding & Algorithms question, commonly asked during Technical Screen rounds at Bloomberg.

What role is this question designed for?

This question is commonly asked for Software Engineer candidates at Bloomberg during technical interviews.

Minimize travel cost with two cities | Bloomberg Coding Question

Quick Overview

Evaluates algorithmic skills in cost-optimization, greedy reasoning and sorting-based assignment while requiring correct handling of constraints and edge cases. Commonly asked in the Coding & Algorithms domain to test a candidate’s ability to design and implement a concrete, implementation-level algorithm and reason about correctness and complexity.

Minimize travel cost with two cities

Company: Bloomberg

Role: Software Engineer

Category: Coding & Algorithms

Difficulty: easy

Interview Round: Technical Screen

You are scheduling candidates to attend an onsite interview. Each candidate i can fly to New York for cost c1[i] or to San Francisco for cost c2[i]. Constraint: You must send exactly ceil(n/2) candidates to New York, and the remaining candidates to San Francisco. Task: Compute the minimum possible total travel cost. Additionally, write a few unit-style test cases that validate your solution (including edge cases such as n=1 and odd n).

Quick Answer: Evaluates algorithmic skills in cost-optimization, greedy reasoning and sorting-based assignment while requiring correct handling of constraints and edge cases. Commonly asked in the Coding & Algorithms domain to test a candidate’s ability to design and implement a concrete, implementation-level algorithm and reason about correctness and complexity.

You are scheduling candidates for an onsite interview. For each candidate i, flying them to New York costs c1[i], and flying them to San Francisco costs c2[i]. You must send exactly ceil(n / 2) candidates to New York, where n is the total number of candidates, and send the remaining candidates to San Francisco. Return the minimum possible total travel cost.

Constraints

1 <= n == len(c1) == len(c2) <= 200000
0 <= c1[i], c2[i] <= 10^9

Examples

Input: ([30], [5])

Expected Output: 30

Explanation: There is only one candidate, and ceil(1/2) = 1, so that candidate must go to New York even though San Francisco is cheaper.

Input: ([10, 30, 400, 30], [20, 200, 50, 20])

Expected Output: 110

Explanation: Send candidates 0 and 1 to New York, and candidates 2 and 3 to San Francisco. Total = 10 + 30 + 50 + 20 = 110.

Input: ([50, 20, 70], [30, 100, 40])

Expected Output: 110

Explanation: n = 3, so ceil(3/2) = 2 candidates must go to New York. The cheapest valid assignment is candidates 0 and 1 to New York, candidate 2 to San Francisco: 50 + 20 + 40 = 110.

Input: ([5, 5, 5, 5, 5], [5, 5, 5, 5, 5])

Expected Output: 25

Explanation: All costs are identical, so any valid assignment gives the same total cost of 25.

Input: ([100, 100], [1, 1])

Expected Output: 101

Explanation: Exactly one of the two candidates must go to New York. The total is 100 + 1 = 101.

Hints

Try first assuming that everyone goes to San Francisco. Then ask: what is the extra cost or savings if a candidate is switched to New York?
For candidate i, that switch changes the total by c1[i] - c2[i]. Which candidates should be chosen for New York?

Quick Overview