Get Rank

Unit 5 Session 1 (Click for link to problem statements)

U-nderstand

Understand what the interviewer is asking for by using test cases and questions about the problem.

• How is the order of players determined in this context?
  • Each player has an ahead attribute pointing to the player directly ahead of them in the race. This linked structure helps to determine their position.

P-lan

Plan the solution with appropriate visualizations and pseudocode.

General Idea: Traverse the linked list structure formed by the ahead attributes of Player objects to determine the position of my_player in the race.

1) Initialize a counter `place` to 1, as the player is at least in the race.
2) Start with `current` pointing to `my_player`.
3) Traverse the list by following the `ahead` pointers, incrementing `place` until there are no more `ahead` pointers (i.e., until reaching the race leader).
4) Return the `place` number, which indicates the player's position in the race.

⚠️ Common Mistakes

• Incorrectly initializing the starting place, potentially off by one error.
• Failing to correctly follow the ahead pointers, which could either loop indefinitely or stop prematurely.

I-mplement

def get_place(my_player):
    place = 1  # Start counting from 1 as the player is at least in some place
    current = my_player
    while current.ahead:
        place += 1
        current = current.ahead
    return place