CodingMediumcod-g074

Subject Binary searchLevel Mid–Senior~25 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

An ascending sorted array was rotated at some unknown pivot and may contain duplicate values. Given the resulting array a (length >= 1), return its minimum element. Aim for better than a linear scan in the average case.

Implement

min_in_rotated(a: list[int]) → int

Examples

in[[3,4,5,1,2]]out1

What a strong answer looks like

State your approach and its time/space complexity out loud before you optimize. Handle the edge cases (empty input, duplicates, overflow), and say why you chose this over the brute force. Green tests are the floor, not the grade.

Learn the concepts

Vibe coding: describe the solution in plain language (or narrate it) and the coach grades your approach. Generating runnable code from your description is coming next.

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.