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Interview question: implement a class that will take a list of lists and return the next item in a randomly selected list
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from random import Random | |
class RandomItemRetriever: | |
''' | |
This class will take a list of lists and return the next item in a randomly selected list. | |
Time: O(1) | |
Space: O(n) where n = number of lists | |
''' | |
def __init__(self, lists): | |
# store original data (never mutated) | |
self.lists = lists | |
# next index for each list | |
self.indexes = [0] * len(lists) | |
# array_idxs | |
self.array_idxs = [x for x in range(len(lists))] | |
# pointer to first available array | |
self.start = 0 | |
def get_next(self): | |
if self.start >= len(self.array_idxs): | |
raise StopIteration() | |
r = Random() | |
idx = r.randint(self.start, len(self.array_idxs)-1) | |
arr_idx = self.array_idxs[idx] | |
item = self.lists[arr_idx][self.indexes[arr_idx]] | |
self.indexes[arr_idx] += 1 | |
# if we're done with a list then put it at start of self.arrays and increment self.start | |
if self.indexes[arr_idx] == len(self.lists[arr_idx]): | |
self.array_idxs[self.start], self.array_idxs[arr_idx] = self.array_idxs[arr_idx], self.array_idxs[self.start] | |
self.start += 1 | |
return item |
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