1046. Last Stone Weight

https://leetcode.com/problems/last-stone-weight/

Python

Max Heap

import heapq


class Solution:
    def lastStoneWeight(self, stones: List[int]) -> int:
        if len(stones) < 2:
            # Constraints indicate the len(stones) min to 1
            return stones[0]

        # Build the max heap
        for i in range(len(stones)):
            stones[i] = -stones[i]
        
        heapq.heapify(stones)
        
        
        while len(stones) > 1:
            largest_1 = heapq.heappop(stones)  # miniumn native is the largest
            largest_2 = heapq.heappop(stones)

            if largest_1 != largest_2:
                heapq.heappush(stones, largest_1-largest_2)
        
        return -heapq.heappop(stones) if stones else 0