5 Ways To Convert Python Integers into Binary Strings

Explained with an algorithm interview question

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

Python is easy to learn but hard to master.

Sometimes, even if you are a senior Python developer, there are still some tricks you don’t know.

Last week, a simple algorithm interview question on LeetCode made me stuck for a while:

Given a positive integer n, there exists a 0-indexed array called powers, composed of the minimum number of powers of 2 that sum to n. The array is sorted in non-decreasing order, and there is only one way to form the array.

You are also given a 0-indexed 2D integer array queries, where queries[i] = [lefti, righti]. Each queries[i] represents a query where you have to find the product of all powers[j] with lefti <= j <= righti.

Return an array answers, equal in length to queries, where answers[i] is the answer to the ith query. Since the answer to the ith query may be too large, each answers[i] should be returned modulo 10**9 + 7.

Example 1:

Input: n = 15, queries = [[0,1],[2,2],[0,3]]
Output: [2,4,64]
Explanation:
For n = 15, powers = [1,2,4,8]. It can be shown that powers cannot be a smaller size.
Answer to 1st query: powers[0] * powers[1] = 1 * 2 = 2.
Answer to 2nd query…