Description

Login

Syncing account progress…

Back

Advanced · 15 min

Efficient search

Use data shape and algorithm choice to avoid unnecessary work.

Choose constant-time membership

Set membership is designed for fast lookup. Build the set once when you will perform repeated checks.

allowed = {"read", "write"}
print("write" in allowed)
print("delete" in allowed)

Output

True
False

Search sorted data

Binary search repeatedly discards half of a sorted range. bisect_left returns the position where a value belongs.

from bisect import bisect_left
numbers = [2, 5, 8, 12]
position = bisect_left(numbers, 8)
print(position)

Output

2

Efficient search

  1. Read both efficient search examples before answering.
  2. Run the task, compare its exact output, and revise the code if needed.

Try it yourself

Code runs on this device. When you are signed in, drafts sync to your account.

Check a sorted catalog

Complete contains so it uses bisect_left and returns whether target exists in sorted_items. Display True and False for the supplied calls.

Practice