How to Solve Separate Black and White Balls Leetcode Problem - Interview Coder Guide
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How to Solve Separate Black and White Balls Problem

Master the Separate Black and White Balls LeetCode problem with undetectable real-time assistance. Get instant solutions and explanations during your coding interviews.

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Medium#3195
LeetCode Problem

Separate Black and White Balls

There are n balls on a table, each ball has a color black or white. You are given a 0-indexed binary string s of length n, where 1 and 0 represent black and white balls, respectively. In each step, yo...

Two PointersStringGreedy

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Problem Breakdown

Understanding the Separate Black and White Balls Problem

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

Problem Statement

There are n balls on a table, each ball has a color black or white. You are given a 0-indexed binary string s of length n, where 1 and 0 represent black and white balls, respectively. In each step, you can choose two adjacent balls and swap them. Return the minimum number of steps to group all the black balls to the right and all the white balls to the left.

MediumProblem #3195
LeetCode

Separate Black and White Balls

Related Topics
Two PointersStringGreedy
How Interview Coder Helps

Get real-time assistance for Separate Black and White Balls problems during coding interviews. Interview Coder provides instant solutions and explanations.

Examples

Example 1
INPUT
s = "101"
OUTPUT
1
EXPLANATION

We can group all the black balls to the right in the following way: - Swap s[0] and s[1], s = "011". Initially, 1s are not grouped together, requiring at least 1 step to group them to the right.

Example 2
INPUT
s = "100"
OUTPUT
2
EXPLANATION

We can group all the black balls to the right in the following way: - Swap s[0] and s[1], s = "010". - Swap s[1] and s[2], s = "001". It can be proven that the minimum number of steps needed is 2.

Example 3
INPUT
s = "0111"
OUTPUT
0
EXPLANATION

All the black balls are already grouped to the right.

Constraints

1 <= n == s.length <= 105
s[i] is either '0' or '1'.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about solving Separate Black and White Balls and using Interview Coder during coding interviews.

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