Surprisal of a Sequence

Problem

Compute the total surprisal in bits of a sequence of event probabilities. The surprisal of a single event is -log2(p), and zero-probability events contribute nothing to the total. Return 0.0 for an empty list, and assume each probability lies in [0, 1].

Hint

Add up the surprisal of every event, skipping zeros.

Test cases

case 1

in: [[0.5,0.25,0.125]]

expected: 6

case 2

in: [[1]]

expected: 0

case 3

in: [[0.5,0.5]]

expected: 2

case 4

in: [[0,1]]

expected: 0

case 5

in: [[]]

expected: 0

Starter codePython

import math
def sequence_surprisal(probs):
    # Your code here
    pass

5 test cases · run your code against them in the editor