Question
You are given an array of integers stones
where stones[i]
is the weight of the ith
stone.
We are playing a game with the stones. On each turn, we choose the heaviest two stones and smash them together. Suppose the heaviest two stones have weights x
and y
with x <= y
. The result of this smash is:
- If
x == y
, both stones are destroyed, and - If
x != y
, the stone of weightx
is destroyed, and the stone of weighty
has new weighty - x
.
At the end of the game, there is at most one stone left.
Return the weight of the last remaining stone. If there are no stones left, return 0
.
Example 1:
Input: stones = [2,7,4,1,8,1] Output: 1 Explanation: We combine 7 and 8 to get 1 so the array converts to [2,4,1,1,1] then, we combine 2 and 4 to get 2 so the array converts to [2,1,1,1] then, we combine 2 and 1 to get 1 so the array converts to [1,1,1] then, we combine 1 and 1 to get 0 so the array converts to [1] then that's the value of the last stone.
Example 2:
Input: stones = [1] Output: 1
Constraints:
1 <= stones.length <= 30
1 <= stones[i] <= 1000
Python Solution
class Solution: def lastStoneWeight(self, stones: List[int]) -> int: stones.sort(reverse=True) while 1: if len(stones)<=1: break if stones[0]>stones[1]: stones.append(stones[0]-stones[1]) stones.remove(stones[0]) stones.remove(stones[0]) stones.sort(reverse=True) if len(stones)==1: return(stones[0]) else: return(0)