How to Solve Minimum Increments to Equalize Leaf Paths Leetcode Problem - Interview Coder Guide
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How to Solve Minimum Increments to Equalize Leaf Paths Problem

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Medium#3909
LeetCode Problem

Minimum Increments to Equalize Leaf Paths

You are given an integer n and an undirected tree rooted at node 0 with n nodes numbered from 0 to n - 1. This is represented by a 2D array edges of length n - 1, where edges[i] = [ui, vi] indicates a...

ArrayDynamic ProgrammingTree+1 more

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Problem Breakdown

Understanding the Minimum Increments to Equalize Leaf Paths Problem

Let's break down this LeetCode problem and understand what makes it challenging in interview settings.

Problem Statement

You are given an integer n and an undirected tree rooted at node 0 with n nodes numbered from 0 to n - 1. This is represented by a 2D array edges of length n - 1, where edges[i] = [ui, vi] indicates an edge from node ui to vi . Each node i has an associated cost given by cost[i], representing the cost to traverse that node. The score of a path is defined as the sum of the costs of all nodes along the path. Your goal is to make the scores of all root-to-leaf paths equal by increasing the cost of any number of nodes by any non-negative amount. Return the minimum number of nodes whose cost must be increased to make all root-to-leaf path scores equal.

MediumProblem #3909
LeetCode

Minimum Increments to Equalize Leaf Paths

Related Topics
ArrayDynamic ProgrammingTreeDepth-First Search
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Examples

Example 1
INPUT
n = 3, edges = [[0,1],[0,2]], cost = [2,1,3]
OUTPUT
1
EXPLANATION

There are two root-to-leaf paths: Path 0 → 1 has a score of 2 + 1 = 3. Path 0 → 2 has a score of 2 + 3 = 5. To make all root-to-leaf path scores equal to 5, increase the cost of node 1 by 2. Only one node is increased, so the output is 1.

Example 2
INPUT
n = 3, edges = [[0,1],[1,2]], cost = [5,1,4]
OUTPUT
0
EXPLANATION

There is only one root-to-leaf path: Path 0 → 1 → 2 has a score of 5 + 1 + 4 = 10. Since only one root-to-leaf path exists, all path costs are trivially equal, and the output is 0.

Example 3
INPUT
n = 5, edges = [[0,4],[0,1],[1,2],[1,3]], cost = [3,4,1,1,7]
OUTPUT
1
EXPLANATION

There are three root-to-leaf paths: Path 0 → 4 has a score of 3 + 7 = 10. Path 0 → 1 → 2 has a score of 3 + 4 + 1 = 8. Path 0 → 1 → 3 has a score of 3 + 4 + 1 = 8. To make all root-to-leaf path scores equal to 10, increase the cost of node 1 by 2. Thus, the output is 1.

Constraints

2 <= n <= 105
edges.length == n - 1
edges[i] == [ui, vi]
0 <= ui, vi < n
cost.length == n
1 <= cost[i] <= 109
The input is generated such that edges represents a valid tree.

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