Connecting Ropes with Minimum Cost

You are given 'N' ropes, each of varying lengths. The task is to connect all ropes into one single rope. The cost of connecting two ropes is the sum of their lengths. Your objective is to find the minimum cost required to connect all the ropes together.

Input:

The first line contains an integer 'N', representing the total number of ropes. The second line contains 'N' space-separated integers where each integer denotes the length of a rope.

Output:

An integer representing the minimum cost required to connect all the ropes.

Example:

Input:
N = 4
Lengths = 4 3 2 6
Output:
29
Explanation:

Start by connecting ropes of lengths 2 and 3; cost = 5. Then connect rope of length 5 with rope of length 4; cost = 9. Finally, connect the resulting rope of length 9 with rope of length 6; cost = 15. Total cost = 5 + 9 + 15 = 29.

Constraints:

  • 1 <= N <= 10^5
  • 1 <= ai <= 10^9
  • Time Limit: 1 second
AnswerBot
4mo

Connect ropes with minimum cost by merging the smallest ropes first.

  • Sort the array of rope lengths in ascending order.

  • Merge the two smallest ropes at each step to minimize cost.

  • Keep track of the total...read more

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