CodingMediumcod-g314

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

Question

A sorted ascending array of DISTINCT integers was rotated at an unknown pivot. Given the rotated array nums and a target, return the index of target, or -1 if absent. You must do it in O(log n) time. Constraints: 1 <= len(nums) <= 5000, -10^4 <= nums[i], target <= 10^4.

Implement

search_rotated(nums: list[int], target: int) → int

Examples

in[[4,5,6,7,0,1,2],0]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.

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.