Guess Number Higher or Lower II

update Aug 7,2017 15:10

LeetCodearrow-up-right

We are playing the Guess Game. The game is as follows:

I pick a number from 1 to n. You have to guess which number I picked.

Every time you guess wrong, I'll tell you whether the number I picked is higher or lower.

However, when you guess a particular number x, and you guess wrong, you pay $x. You win the game when you guess the number I picked.

Example:

n = 10, I pick 8.

First round:  You guess 5, I tell you that it's higher. You pay $5.
Second round: You guess 7, I tell you that it's higher. You pay $7.
Third round:  You guess 9, I tell you that it's lower. You pay $9.

Game over. 8 is the number I picked.

You end up paying $5 + $7 + $9 = $21.

Given a particular n ≥ 1, find out how much money you need to have to guarantee a win.

Basic Idea:

这里arrow-up-right 有一些分析。 思路1:记忆化搜索 首先根据观察,有如下规律:

对于给定范围 [i, j] 而言,对于每个 k (i <= k <= j),都有如下情况:

  1. 当前 k 就是所求数字,则 cost = 0;

  2. 所求数字比 k 小,则 cost = k + cost(i, k-1);

  3. 所求数字比 k 大,则 cost = k + cost(k+1, j);

最终的 cost(i, j) 就是当前 k ,以上三种情况的最大值。考虑所有 k 的情况之后,取最小值就是所求的解。

事实上,在搜索过程中,相当于我们每次都只考虑当前 k 不是 target 的情况(除非i==j),所以我们认为target一定在k的左边或者右边。

Python Code: