Huffman Maximum Codeword Length

Problem

Build a Huffman code from a list of symbol frequencies using a min-heap keyed by frequency and then insertion order, and return the longest codeword length. Return 0 when fewer than two symbols are present.

Hint

Repeatedly merge the two lightest subtrees and track how deep each original symbol ends up.

Test cases

case 1

in: [[5,2,1]]

expected: 2

case 2

in: [[1,1,1,1]]

expected: 2

case 3

in: [[8]]

expected: 0

case 4

in: [[]]

expected: 0

case 5

in: [[3,3,3,1,1]]

expected: 3

Starter codePython

import heapq
def huffman_max_length(freqs):
    # Your code here
    pass

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