Count minimum cost in graph
Last updated: November 18, 2025
Quick Overview
Given a weighted directed graph, your task is to determine the minimum cost to travel from a specified source node to a target node. The input will consist of the number of nodes, a list of edges with their corresponding weights, and the source and target nodes. The output should be the minimum cost of the path, or indicate if the target node is unreachable.
Oracle
November 18, 2025113
14
931 solved
Given a weighted directed graph, your task is to determine the minimum cost to travel from a specified source node to a target node. The input will consist of the number of nodes, a list of edges with their corresponding weights, and the source and target nodes. The output should be the minimum cost of the path, or indicate if the target node is unreachable.
Oracle 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
- Can you solve this in a single pass?
- How would your solution change if the input was sorted?
- What if the input doesn't fit in memory?
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Practice DSA ProblemsSample Answer
Problem Analysis
The problem is about finding the minimum cost to travel from a source node to a target node in a weighted directed graph. Given the nature of the problem, Dijkstra's algorithm is the most appropriate ...
Approach
- Graph Representation: Represent the graph using an adjacency list where each entry contains the destination node and the weight (cost) of the edge.
- Initialization: Create a priority qu...
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