What is the brute force solution for Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary?

The brute force approach for Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary is Brute Force, with O(n²) time complexity and O(1) space complexity. The brute-force approach involves calculating the sum of all salaries, finding the minimum and maximum salaries, and then computing the average of the remaining salaries. This method is straightforward but not the most efficient. The optimal Optimal Solution approach improves this to O(n).

What algorithm or data structure is used to solve Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary?

Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary uses the following concepts: Array, Sorting. The recommended patterns to study are: Array, Mathematical Aggregation.

What are the interview tips for Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary?

Always clarify the problem requirements and constraints before jumping into coding. Think aloud during the interview to show your thought process and reasoning. Practice dry runs of your code with sample inputs to ensure correctness before finalizing your solution.

What are common mistakes when solving Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary?

Failing to account for the correct number of elements when calculating the average (subtracting 2 from the total count). Not considering edge cases, such as the minimum number of salaries required to compute the average.

#1491

Average Salary Excluding the Minimum and Maximum Salary

Easy

ArraySortingArrayMathematical Aggregation

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Approaches

Brute ForceOptimal

Complexity Comparison

	Brute Force	Optimal Solution★
Time	O(n²)	O(n)
Space	O(1)	O(1)

💡

Intuition

Time O(n)Space O(1)

The optimal solution improves on the brute-force approach by calculating the total sum in a single pass while simultaneously finding the minimum and maximum salaries. This reduces the number of iterations needed.

⚙️

Algorithm

4 steps

1Step 1: Initialize variables for total sum, minimum salary, and maximum salary.
2Step 2: Iterate through the salary array to compute total sum, minimum, and maximum in one pass.
3Step 3: Subtract the minimum and maximum from the total sum.
4Step 4: Divide the result by the number of salaries minus 2 to get the average.

solution.py13 lines

1# Full working Python code
2
3def average_salary(salary):
4    total_sum = 0
5    min_salary = float('inf')
6    max_salary = float('-inf')
7    
8    for s in salary:
9        total_sum += s
10        min_salary = min(min_salary, s)
11        max_salary = max(max_salary, s)
12    
13    return (total_sum - min_salary - max_salary) / (len(salary) - 2)

ℹ

Complexity note: The time complexity is O(n) because we only loop through the array once to calculate the total sum, minimum, and maximum salaries. The space complexity is O(1) since we are using a constant amount of extra space.

1Understanding how to efficiently calculate aggregates (sum, min, max) in a single pass can significantly improve performance.
2Recognizing that the constraints guarantee unique salaries simplifies the problem, as we don't need to handle duplicates.

Solutions and explanations are original Tejav content. Problem titles © LeetCode — use the LeetCode button above for the full problem statement.