Code Room
CodingHardcod-g284
Subject MstLevel Senior–Staff~40 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

Given n nodes and a list of weighted undirected edges [u, v, w], return the total weight of the second-best (strictly second smallest) spanning tree: the minimum weight achievable by any spanning tree whose total weight is strictly greater than the MST weight. If every spanning tree has the same weight as the MST (or the graph is disconnected / has only one spanning tree), return -1. Edge weights are positive integers.

Implement
second_best_mst(n: int, edges: list[list[int]]) → int
Examples
in[4,[[0,1,1],[1,2,1],[2,3,1],[0,3,2],[0,2,2]]]out4
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.

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.