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Tasks Details
easy
Count the number of passing cars on the road.
Task Score
70%
Correctness
100%
Performance
40%

Task description

A non-empty array A consisting of N integers is given. The consecutive elements of array A represent consecutive cars on a road.

Array A contains only 0s and/or 1s:

  • 0 represents a car traveling east,
  • 1 represents a car traveling west.

The goal is to count passing cars. We say that a pair of cars (P, Q), where 0 ≤ P < Q < N, is passing when P is traveling to the east and Q is traveling to the west.

For example, consider array A such that:

A[0] = 0 A[1] = 1 A[2] = 0 A[3] = 1 A[4] = 1

We have five pairs of passing cars: (0, 1), (0, 3), (0, 4), (2, 3), (2, 4).

Write a function:

class Solution { public int solution(int[] A); }

that, given a non-empty array A of N integers, returns the number of pairs of passing cars.

The function should return −1 if the number of pairs of passing cars exceeds 1,000,000,000.

For example, given:

A[0] = 0 A[1] = 1 A[2] = 0 A[3] = 1 A[4] = 1

the function should return 5, as explained above.

Write an efficient algorithm for the following assumptions:

  • N is an integer within the range [1..100,000];
  • each element of array A is an integer that can have one of the following values: 0, 1.
Copyright 2009–2025 by Codility Limited. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized copying, publication or disclosure prohibited.
Solution
Programming language used Java 8
Time spent on task 51 minutes
Notes
not defined yet
Task timeline
12:57:52
13:48:12
Code: 13:48:12 UTC, java, final, score:  70
// you can also use imports, for example:
// import java.util.*;

// you can write to stdout for debugging purposes, e.g.
// System.out.println("this is a debug message");

class Solution {
    public int solution(int[] A) {
        
        int result = 0;
        int oneCount = 0;

        for(int i=0; i<A.length; i++){
            if(A[i] == 1) oneCount++;
        }

        for(int j=0; j<A.length; ++j){
            if(A[j] == 0){
                result += oneCount;
            }else{
                oneCount--;
            }
        }

        return result;
    }
}
Analysis summary

The following issues have been detected: wrong answers.

Analysis
expand all Example tests
example
example test
OK
expand all Correctness tests
single
single element
OK
double
two elements
OK
simple
simple test
OK
small_random
random, length = 100
OK
small_random2
random, length = 1000
OK
expand all Performance tests
medium_random
random, length = ~10,000
OK
large_random
random, length = ~100,000
WRONG ANSWER
got 1248768710 expected -1
large_big_answer
0..01..1, length = ~100,000
WRONG ANSWER
got -1794967296 expected -1
large_alternate
0101..01, length = ~100,000
WRONG ANSWER
got 1250025000 expected -1
large_extreme
large test with all 1s/0s, length = ~100,000
OK