Daily Coding Challenge : Implement a Min Stack — Master Constant-Time Minimum Retrieval

Optimize your data structure skills

Challenge Overview

Today’s challenge is to design and implement a Min Stack — a special kind of stack that, in addition to the standard push and pop operations, can return the minimum element in constant time. This problem will help you improve your understanding of data structures and optimize your algorithmic efficiency.

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Problem Statement

Create a class MinStack that supports the following operations:

1. push(val):

• Pushes the element val onto the stack.

2. pop():

• Removes the element on the top of the stack.

3. top():

• Returns the top element of the stack without removing it.

4. getMin():

• Retrieves the minimum element in the stack in constant time.

Key Requirements:

• Constant-Time Operations: All the operations (push, pop, top, and getMin) should be implemented to work in O(1) time.
• Data Structures: You might consider using an auxiliary data structure alongside the main stack to keep track of the minimum values efficiently.

Example Usage

Imagine using the MinStack as follows:

MinStack minStack = new MinStack();
minStack.push(-2);
minStack.push(0);
minStack.push(-3);
minStack.getMin();   // Returns -3.
minStack.pop();
minStack.top();      // Returns 0.
minStack.getMin();   // Returns -2.

Participation

Share your solution or a link to your repository in the comments below. Outstanding solutions will be tagged in our next post! If your solution isn’t posted yet, hurry up — you could be the next mention in our upcoming challenge highlights!

Happy coding and best of luck on today’s challenge!

[embed]Daily Coding Challenge: Implement an LRU Cache Master the Art of Constant-Time Caching.medium.com

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