Question
Two warehouse zones each keep an ascending list of the product codes they stock; a code can repeat within a zone and can appear in both zones. Produce the combined catalogue: one ascending list containing each distinct code exactly once. Do it in a single simultaneous scan of the two lists, without sorting or using set structures. Example: [1, 3, 3, 5] and [2, 3, 6] combine to [1, 2, 3, 5, 6].
combined_catalogue(a: list[int], b: list[int]) → list[int][[1,3,3,5],[2,3,6]]out[1,2,3,5,6]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.
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.