1217. Minimum Cost to Move Chips to The Same Position

Problem

We have n chips, where the position of the ith chip is position[i].

We need to move all the chips to the same position. In one step, we can change the position of the ith chip from position[i] to:

• position[i] + 2 or position[i] - 2 with cost = 0.

• position[i] + 1 or position[i] - 1 with cost = 1.

Return the minimum cost needed to move all the chips to the same position.

  Example 1:

Input: position = [1,2,3]
Output: 1
Explanation: First step: Move the chip at position 3 to position 1 with cost = 0.
Second step: Move the chip at position 2 to position 1 with cost = 1.
Total cost is 1.

Example 2:

Input: position = [2,2,2,3,3]
Output: 2
Explanation: We can move the two chips at position  3 to position 2. Each move has cost = 1. The total cost = 2.

Example 3:

Input: position = [1,1000000000]
Output: 1

  Constraints:

• 1 <= position.length <= 100

• 1 <= position[i] <= 10^9

Solution (Java)

class Solution {
    public int minCostToMoveChips(int[] position) {
        int chipsAtOddPosition = 0;
        int chipsAtEvenPosition = 0;
        for (int j : position) {
            if (j % 2 == 0) {
                chipsAtEvenPosition++;
            } else {
                chipsAtOddPosition++;
            }
        }
        return Math.min(chipsAtEvenPosition, chipsAtOddPosition);
    }
}

Explain:

nope.

Complexity:

• Time complexity : O(n).
• Space complexity : O(n).