DIY: Random Pick with Weight
Solve the interview question "Random Pick with Weight" in this lesson.
We'll cover the following
Problem statement
You are given an array of positive integers, w
, where w[i]
describes the weight of the index.
We need to call the function pick_index()
, which randomly returns an index from the weights array.
The heavier the weight is, the higher the chances of getting that index randomly.
Suppose the weights array contains the values [10, 90]
. In this case, index 0
will be returned with probability 10 / (10 + 90) = 10%
. Similarly, index 1
will be returned with 90%
probability.
Input
The input will be a list of integers. The following is an example input:
w = [1, 2, 3]
Output
The output will be an integer value representing the index with the highest probability. The following is an example output for the above input:
2
Index 2
has the highest weight, so its probability of occurrence is higher.
Note: As we are randomly choosing the highest probable option, there is no guarantee that the element with the highest weight will always be selected.
Coding exercise
Implement the pick_index()
function, where the integer’s weight array is passed to the constructor. The function will return a single integer value representing the index with the highest probability.
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