Code Room
CodingHardcod-g709
Subject Sos dpLevel Senior–Staff~35 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

You are given an integer n (number of bits) and an array a of length 2**n. For every mask m in [0, 2**n), compute f(m) = the sum of a[s] over all submasks s of m (i.e. s & m == s). Return the resulting array f of length 2**n. Constraints: 1 <= n <= 12, so the array fits and the classic O(n * 2**n) sum-over-subsets DP is required (a naive O(3**n) submask enumeration is too slow at the top range).

Implement
sum_over_subsets(n: int, a: list[int]) → list[int]
Examples
in[2,[1,2,3,4]]out[1,3,4,10]
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.