Count median in graph
Last updated: March 23, 2026
Quick Overview
Given a graph represented as an adjacency list, write a function to calculate the median of the weights of all edges in the graph. The function should take the graph as input and return the median value as a float. If the number of edges is even, return the average of the two middle values.
Vercel
March 23, 202610
5
1,220 solved
Given a graph represented as an adjacency list, write a function to calculate the median of the weights of all edges in the graph. The function should take the graph as input and return the median value as a float. If the number of edges is even, return the average of the two middle values.
Vercel uses this problem in the Technical Screen to evaluate your algorithmic thinking. They expect you to discuss multiple approaches, analyze trade-offs between them, and implement the optimal solution with clean, readable code.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Quickly identify the optimal approach and its theoretical basis
- Handle complex algorithm design with multiple interacting components
- Write concise, elegant code under time pressure
- Prove correctness of your approach and discuss alternative solutions
- Optimize beyond the obvious: discuss constant factor improvements
- Address follow-up variations and explain how the solution generalizes
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Clarify input constraints and edge cases before writing code.
- Walk through your approach verbally and confirm with the interviewer before coding.
- Start with a brute force solution, then optimize. Mention time and space complexity.
- Test your solution with examples, including edge cases like empty input or duplicates.
- Consider common patterns: sliding window, two pointers, hash map, BFS/DFS, dynamic programming.
Possible Follow-up Questions
- How would you modify your solution to handle streaming input?
- How would your solution change if the input was sorted?
- What is the worst-case input for your solution?
- Can you solve this iteratively instead of recursively (or vice versa)?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
To solve the problem of finding the median of the weights of all edges in a graph represented by an adjacency list, we can utilize a two-step approach. The first step is to gather all edge weights fro...
Approach
The algorithm can be broken down into the following steps:
- Extract Edge Weights: Iterate through each vertex in the adjacency list and collect the weights of all edges into a single list.
- ...
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