A Sweet Treat: Birthday Candles Challenge on HackerRank

Question

A Sweet Treat: Birthday Candles Challenge on HackerRank

Welcome to my first post ever on this platform! 😄

I'm stuck on a problem and can't seem to figure it out. Here's the link to the challenge: .

Most of my tests are passing, except for the last one.

Another user posted a similar question but with a different approach, and they're facing the same issue with the test case. Here's the link to their question: Birthday cake candles- hackerrank.

Below is the code I'm currently using:

function birthdayCakeCandles(ar) {
  ar = ar.sort();
  let high = [];
  for(let i = 0; i < ar.length; i++){
    if (ar[i] === ar[ar.length -1]){
      high.push(ar[i]);
    }
  }
  return high.length;
}

Would really appreciate any help or suggestions. Thank you! 🙏

javascript arrays for-loop

Answer 1

Answer №1

After reviewing your code, it seems to be correct!

For better optimization, consider storing the highest value as a variable to avoid calculating it during each iteration. Also, instead of storing the entire array, you can just store the count of the tallest candles in a variable like high.

function birthdayCakeCandles(ar) {
    ar = ar.sort();
    let highest = ar[ar.length-1] //calculate once only
    let high = 0;
    for(let candle of ar){
        if (candle === highest){
            high ++; //incrementing
        }
    }
    return high;
}

birthdayCakeCandles([1,2,3,4,5,3,2,5,4,1,2]) //2

Another approach is to use the indexOf method.

function birthdayCakeCandles(ar) {
    ar = ar.sort();
    let highest = ar[ar.length-1]
    return ar.length - ar.indexOf(highest);
}
birthdayCakeCandles([1,2,3,3,2,1,5,5,6,4,6,4,3,2,2,2,2]) //2

Edit: It seems that some input cases are not working due to the Array.sort() function sorting the array alphabetically. This can be resolved by passing a function to the sort() method to handle items numerically. Refer to developer.mozilla.org for more information.

numbers.sort(function(a, b) {
  return a - b;
})

To simplify, you can use an arrow function.

numbers.sort((a, b) => a - b)

Replace all instances of ar.sort() with ar.sort((a, b) => a - b)

Answer 2

After reviewing your code, it seems to be correct!

For better optimization, consider storing the highest value as a variable to avoid calculating it during each iteration. Also, instead of storing the entire array, you can just store the count of the tallest candles in a variable like high.

function birthdayCakeCandles(ar) {
    ar = ar.sort();
    let highest = ar[ar.length-1] //calculate once only
    let high = 0;
    for(let candle of ar){
        if (candle === highest){
            high ++; //incrementing
        }
    }
    return high;
}

birthdayCakeCandles([1,2,3,4,5,3,2,5,4,1,2]) //2

Another approach is to use the indexOf method.

function birthdayCakeCandles(ar) {
    ar = ar.sort();
    let highest = ar[ar.length-1]
    return ar.length - ar.indexOf(highest);
}
birthdayCakeCandles([1,2,3,3,2,1,5,5,6,4,6,4,3,2,2,2,2]) //2

Edit: It seems that some input cases are not working due to the Array.sort() function sorting the array alphabetically. This can be resolved by passing a function to the sort() method to handle items numerically. Refer to developer.mozilla.org for more information.

numbers.sort(function(a, b) {
  return a - b;
})

To simplify, you can use an arrow function.

numbers.sort((a, b) => a - b)

Replace all instances of ar.sort() with ar.sort((a, b) => a - b)

A Sweet Treat: Birthday Candles Challenge on HackerRank

Answer №1

Similar questions

Can you explain the significance of the res.render callback parameter in Express 4.0 for Node.js?

In order to ensure proper alignment, adjust the width of the select element to match the width of the

Tips for navigating the HTML DOM without using window.scrollBy(x, y) (specifically for scrolling within an element)

Efficient Ways to Present and Personalize Indian Date and Time using JavaScript

Having difficulty with pagination within a callback function

Oops! Property 'month' cannot be set on undefined value due to a TypeError

Error encountered when attempting to retrieve token from firebase for messaging

Encountered an error when attempting to use the 'removeChild' function on a node that is not a child of the specified node. This issue arose while interacting with an input box

Creating a dropdown menu in Bootstrap 5 without using any of the Bootstrap

How can I show only the final four digits of an input field using Angular Material and AngularJS?

What is the best way to detect a specific button press from an external component?

What is the process for integrating ng-bootstrap into an Angular 5 project?

Leveraging custom properties in HTML elements with JavaScript

Is there a way to transfer the data from a chosen row into a different table?

Real-time JQuery search with instant results

Animating Divs with jQuery to Expand their Size

I'm encountering an issue where the data in my personalDeatail model's add value is not updating automatically. Can someone please help me

Challenges arise when attempting to return an early resolution within promises in JavaScript

By pressing enter, Combobox autocomplete feature automatically selects the first item in the suggestion list

Using formidable to parse form data in Node.js