Daily Coding Problem: Problem #1533 [Medium]

Good morning! Here's your coding interview problem for today.

This problem was asked by Samsung.

A group of houses is connected to the main water plant by means of a set of pipes. A house can either be connected by a set of pipes extending directly to the plant, or indirectly by a pipe to a nearby house which is otherwise connected.

For example, here is a possible configuration, where A, B, and C are houses, and arrows represent pipes:

A <--> B <--> C <--> plant

Each pipe has an associated cost, which the utility company would like to minimize. Given an undirected graph of pipe connections, return the lowest cost configuration of pipes such that each house has access to water.

In the following setup, for example, we can remove all but the pipes from plant to A, plant to B, and B to C, for a total cost of 16.

pipes = {
    'plant': {'A': 1, 'B': 5, 'C': 20},
    'A': {'C': 15},
    'B': {'C': 10},
    'C': {}
}

Upgrade to premium and get in-depth solutions to every problem, including this one. Since you were referred by one of our affiliates, you'll get a 10% discount on checkout!

If you liked this problem, feel free to forward it along so they can subscribe here! As always, shoot us an email if there's anything we can help with!

Practice makes perfect. Book a mock interview with a FAANG-level interviewer today from our friends at Exponent (10% off!).

System design interviews are becoming more popular in SWE interviews. Here's how to prepare.

No more? Snooze or unsubscribe.