The discussion revolves around a problem related to Prim's algorithm in the context of determining pick-up and drop-off locations for packages by an e-commerce company. Participants explore the requirements of the problem, the clarity of the question, and the implications of the minimum distance constraint between drop centers, as represented in a weighted, undirected graph.
Participants generally express disagreement regarding the clarity and quality of the problem statement. There is no consensus on the interpretation of the requirements or the relevance of Prim's algorithm, as some participants are unsure about its application.
Participants note that the problem lacks clear definitions and parameters, such as the graph weights, which complicates the understanding of the requirements. Additionally, the use of acronyms without definition contributes to the confusion.
This discussion may be of interest to individuals preparing for coding interviews, those studying algorithms, or participants seeking to understand the application of graph theory in practical scenarios.
What is the requirement?Baluncore said:1. Drop-off Centers
An e-commerce company, WhatDoYouWant, wants to contract with local businesses to use their stores as pick-up and drop-off locations for their packages. To reduce expenses, they want to ensure that their drop centers are a minimum distance apart from each other.
A city has many potential drop centers (pdcs) to choose from, represented as nodes on a weighted, undirected graph. The edges on this graph denote roads that connect pdcs, with weights representing the lengths of the roads.
Determine how many unique subsets of these companies can be contracted that would satisfy that requirement.
"they want to ensure that their drop centers are a minimum distance apart from each other."joshmccraney said:What is the requirement?
So like Prim's algorithm?Mark44 said:"they want to ensure that their drop centers are a minimum distance apart from each other."
I don't know anything about Prim's algorithm. You asked "What is that requirement?"joshmccraney said:So like Prim's algorithm?
So for the first triangle shown, would the answer be 5, since all circles are connected with total length 5?Mark44 said:I don't know anything about Prim's algorithm. You asked "What is that requirement?"
My answer was based on what Baluncore wrote, which I presume came directly from the problem you linked to.
graph_weight argument provided; can you work out what it should be given the weights in the diagram?Chegg seems to be featuring a lot in threads here recently, and also in general internet search results: they must have been pumping it on many levels and obviously plan to make a lot of money. Some of their questions and examples clearly need debugging: do we want to help them do this?Baluncore said:Does such a poorly posed question deserve such attention ?
Maybe it is just click bait, designed to get you to sign up.
Well, it's weird because this was literally a coding interview question I had. I obviously didn't take the time to post this until after the interview was complete (not a cheater and honestly no time), but I had no clue what the question was asking. Consequently I didn't even attempt the question. But after the interview I started googling to see what on Earth was being asked. Still don't fully understand, but I'm fine with that.pbuk said:Chegg seems to be featuring a lot in threads here recently, and also in general internet search results: they must have been pumping it on many levels and obviously plan to make a lot of money. Some of their questions and examples clearly need debugging: do we want to help them do this?
LOLOL it was generated by a computer, and it didn't have the lines and line weights. Also, it used the acronym "pdcs" without definition, along with several other errors. Also, one multiple choice answer about flow charts wasn't available. I even coded it afterwords and nada. The whole process was very weird.Baluncore said:Maybe the interviewer found the question on Chegg.com
Maybe they wanted to see how you would react when intimidated by such a poorly posed problem.