Codepath

Keys versus Values

Unit 2 Session 1 (Click for link to problem statements)

U-nderstand

Understand what the interviewer is asking for by using test cases and questions about the problem.

  • Will both the keys and values always be integers?
    • Yes.

P-lan

Plan the solution with appropriate visualizations and pseudocode.

General Idea: Find the sum of all keys, the sum of all values, then print a result based on their comparison.

1) Find the sum of all keys
  a) First, get all keys as a list
  b) Next, find the sum of that list
2) Find the sum of all values in the same way
3) Check which is larger, and print the result accordingly

I-mplement

def keys_v_values(dictionary):
    # Calculate the sum of all keys
    sum_of_keys = sum(dictionary.keys()) # can also use a loop
    
    # Calculate the sum of all values
    sum_of_values = sum(dictionary.values()) # can also use a loop
    
    # Determine which sum is greater or if they are equal
    if sum_of_keys > sum_of_values:
        return "keys"
    elif sum_of_values > sum_of_keys:
        return "values"
    else:
        return "balanced"

Note: You might have solved this problem by using loops to sum up the .keys() and .values() lists. That will also work, but using the provided sum(list) function in python simplifies your code.

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