CodingHardcod-g256

Subject Bipartite matchingLevel Senior–Staff~45 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

You are given an n x n cost matrix where cost[i][j] is the cost of assigning agent i to task j. Assign every agent to exactly one distinct task (a perfect matching) so the total cost is minimized, and return that minimum total cost. All costs are non-negative integers. Constraints: 1 <= n <= 8.

Implement

min_cost_assignment(cost: list[list[int]]) → int

Examples

in[[[1,2],[2,1]]]out2

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.