Minimum Distances HackerRank Solution ( Brute Force )

Minimum Distances 1.py

def minimumDistances(a):
    n=len(a)
    minimum=n+1         #Initializing with n+1 because if no updates take place we should return -1 as there are no matching pairs
    # Note:- If any matching pairs is found the distance would be less than n
    for i in range(n-1):
        for j in range(i+1,n):
            if a[i]==a[j]:
                if j-i<minimum:
                    minimum=j-i
    if minimum==n+1:
        return -1
    return minimum