How to approach this question

#1

How to approach this question

#2

hello @hssharma2212000
We have an array k of first n ugly number. We only know, at the beginning, the first one, which is 1. Then

k[1] = min( k[0]x2, k[0]x3, k[0]x5). The answer is k[0]x2. So we move 2’s pointer to 1. Then we test:

k[2] = min( k[1]x2, k[0]x3, k[0]x5). And so on. Be careful about the cases such as 6, in which we need to forward both pointers of 2 and 3.

  int nthUglyNumber(int n) {
        if(n <= 0) return false; // get rid of corner cases 
        if(n == 1) return true; // base case
        int t2 = 0, t3 = 0, t5 = 0; //pointers for 2, 3, 5
        vector<int> k(n);
        k[0] = 1;
        for(int i  = 1; i < n ; i ++)
        {
            k[i] = min(k[t2]*2,min(k[t3]*3,k[t5]*5));
            if(k[i] == k[t2]*2) t2++; 
            if(k[i] == k[t3]*3) t3++;
            if(k[i] == k[t5]*5) t5++;
        }
        return k[n-1];
    }
#3

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