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Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns in Python

Solution: Search in Rotated Sorted Array

Explore techniques to find a target element in a rotated sorted array by applying a modified binary search. Understand how to divide the array, identify sorted halves, and focus searches to achieve efficient O(log n) time complexity. This lesson guides you through the problem-solving process, implementation details, and algorithm optimization.

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Statement

You are given a sorted integer array, nums, and an integer, target. The array may have been rotated by an arbitrary number. Your task is to find and return the index of target in this array. If target does not exist, return -1.

An original sorted array before rotation is given below:

g array 1 10 20 47 59 63 75 88 99 107 120 133 155 162 176 188 199 200 210 222

After rotating this array 6 times, it changes to:

g array 176 188 199 200 210 222 1 10 20 47 59 63 75 88 99 107 120 133 155 162

Constraints:

  • All values in nums are unique.
  • The values in nums are sorted in ascending order.
  • The array may have been rotated by some arbitrary number.
  • 1≤1 \leq nums.length ≤1000\leq 1000
  • −104≤-10^4 \leq nums[i] ≤104\leq 10^4
  • −104≤-10^4 \leq
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