Solution: Triplet Sum Close to Target

Grokking the Coding Interview: Patterns for Coding Questions

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I feel just keeping up with the sum rather than calculating the difference right away makes things easier to read and comprehend when updating smallest_diff

Landon Brown

Jan 14, 2024

import math

class Solution:
  def searchTriplet(self, arr, target_sum):
    # TODO: Write your code here
    arr.sort()
    smallest_diff = math.inf
    closest_sum = math.inf
    l = 0
    while l < len(arr):
      m = l + 1
      r = len(arr)-1
      while m < r:
        val_sum = arr[l] + arr[m] + arr[r]
        if val_sum == target_sum:
          return val_sum
        if abs(target_sum-val_sum) < abs(smallest_diff) or val_sum < closest_sum:
          smallest_diff = target_sum-val_sum
          closest_sum = val_sum
        if val_sum > target_sum:
          r -= 1
        else:
          m += 1
      l += 1
    return target_sum-smallest_diff

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