Algorithms & data structures
Classic patterns — search, sort, stacks, queues, and practical complexity-aware code.
Find Common Elements in List of Lists in Python
Return elements that appear in every sublist of a nested list, preserving duplicates with Counter intersection.
from collections import Counter
def common_elements(list_of_lists):
"""Return elements present in every sublist."""
if not list_of_lists:
return []
counts = Counter(list_of_lists[0])
for sublist in list_of_lists[1:]:
counts &= Counter(sublist)
return list(counts.elements())
if _…Find Elements Appearing More Than n/3 Times in Python
Return all elements that occur more than len(array)/3 times using a simple dictionary counter.
def majority_third(arr):
"""Return elements appearing more than len(arr)/3 times."""
cutoff = len(arr) / 3
counts = {}
for x in arr:
counts[x] = counts.get(x, 0) + 1
return [x for x, c in counts.items() if c > cutoff]
if __name__ == "__main__":
test1 = [3, 2, 3]
test2 = [1, 1, 1, …Find Missing Numbers, Duplicates, and Ranges in Python
Analyze a list to identify missing numbers, duplicate values, and contiguous ranges using sets and the Counter class.
def find_missing_duplicates_ranges(numbers):
"""Find missing numbers, duplicates, and ranges in a list."""
from collections import Counter
if not numbers:
return {"missing": [], "duplicates": [], "ranges": []}
full_range = set(range(min(numbers), max(numbers) + 1))
present = set(n…Find Single Number Appearing Once in Python
Count frequency of each number in a list and return the one that appears exactly once when all others appear twice.
from collections import Counter
def find_single_number(nums):
counts = Counter(nums)
for num, count in counts.items():
if count == 1:
return num
return None
if __name__ == "__main__":
nums = [4, 1, 2, 1, 2]
result = find_single_number(nums)
print(f"Single number in {nums} …How to Count Occurrences of Each Value in Python
Count how many times each value appears in a list using Python's Counter from the collections module.
from collections import Counter
def count_occurrences(values):
"""Return a dictionary mapping each value to its count."""
return dict(Counter(values))
if __name__ == "__main__":
sample_data = ["apple", "banana", "apple", "cherry", "banana", "apple"]
result = count_occurrences(sample_data)
print(r…How to Implement a Recent Counter with a Deque in Python
Implements a RecentCounter class that uses a deque to count ping requests within the last 3000 milliseconds.
from collections import deque
import time
class RecentCounter:
def __init__(self):
self.hits = deque()
def ping(self, t: int) -> int:
self.hits.append(t)
while self.hits and self.hits[0] < t - 3000:
self.hits.popleft()
return len(self.hits)
if __name__ == "__mai…Sort Unique Values by Frequency in Python
Count element frequencies with Counter and sort unique values by descending frequency, breaking ties alphabetically.
from collections import Counter
def sort_unique_by_frequency(values):
counts = Counter(values)
return sorted(counts.keys(), key=lambda x: (-counts[x], x))
if __name__ == "__main__":
data = [4, 2, 2, 8, 3, 3, 1, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 1]
result = sort_unique_by_frequency(data)
print(f"Sorted unique values…Browse by section
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