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1217. Minimum Cost to Move Chips to The Same Position (Easy)

We have n chips, where the position of the ith chip is position[i].

We need to move all the chips to the same position. In one step, we can change the position of the ith chip from position[i] to:

• position[i] + 2 or position[i] - 2 with cost = 0.
• position[i] + 1 or position[i] - 1 with cost = 1.

Return the minimum cost needed to move all the chips to the same position.

 

Example 1:

Input: position = [1,2,3]
Output: 1
Explanation: First step: Move the chip at position 3 to position 1 with cost = 0.
Second step: Move the chip at position 2 to position 1 with cost = 1.
Total cost is 1.

Example 2:

Input: position = [2,2,2,3,3]
Output: 2
Explanation: We can move the two chips at position  3 to position 2. Each move has cost = 1. The total cost = 2.

Example 3:

Input: position = [1,1000000000]
Output: 1

 

Constraints:

• 1 <= position.length <= 100
• 1 <= position[i] <= 10^9

Related Topics

[Array] [Math] [Greedy]

Similar Questions

1. Minimum Number of Operations to Move All Balls to Each Box (Medium)

Hints

Hint 1

The first move keeps the parity of the element as it is.

Hint 2

The second move changes the parity of the element.

Hint 3

Since the first move is free, if all the numbers have the same parity, the answer would be zero.

Hint 4

Find the minimum cost to make all the numbers have the same parity.