Minimum Number of Pushes to Type Word II

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Problem Description

So, you’ve decided to type a word, and suddenly you realize that your keyboard is not a magical portal that types everything with a single tap. Welcome to the world of typing where every letter counts, and every push of a button feels like a mini workout! The problem at hand is to determine the minimum number of pushes required to type a given word, considering that each letter can be typed multiple times.

Imagine you’re trying to send a text message to your friend, but your phone’s keyboard is as responsive as a sloth on a lazy day. You have to push the buttons multiple times just to get your message across. The struggle is real, and this problem captures that essence perfectly!

Code Solution


class Solution:
    def minimumPushes(self, word: str) -> int:
        freqs = sorted(collections.Counter(word).values(), reverse=True)
        return sum(freq * (i // 8 + 1) for i, freq in enumerate(freqs))

Approach

The approach taken in the code is quite straightforward. It first counts the frequency of each character in the word using collections.Counter. Then, it sorts these frequencies in descending order. The key insight is that every 8 characters typed will require an additional push, so the total number of pushes is calculated by multiplying the frequency of each character by the number of pushes required based on its position in the sorted list.

Time and Space Complexity

Complexity Type	Complexity
Time Complexity	O(n log n)
Space Complexity	O(n)

Real-World Example

Let’s say you’re trying to type “hello” on your phone. If you have to press the ‘h’ key twice, the ‘e’ key once, and the ‘l’ key three times, you can see how the number of pushes adds up. If your phone had a magical feature that allowed you to type all letters with a single push, life would be so much easier! But alas, we live in the real world where every letter counts.