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Factory Production Time

Find the earliest time parallel machines can finish a target number of items.

What you'll learn

  • Binary search over time instead of items
  • Check if a time is enough in one pass
  • Pick safe search bounds

Problem

All machines start at time 0 and work independently. A machine with time t finishes one item after t seconds, another after 2t seconds, and so on. Find the earliest whole second when their combined production reaches the target.

Implement factory_machines(times, target).

Input

times: Seconds needed for one item on each machine.

target: The number of completed items required.

Output

Return the minimum elapsed seconds.

Constraints

1 ≤ machines ≤ 200,000. Each time and the target are between 1 and 1,000,000,000. The answer fits signed 64-bit.

Examples

Example 1
Input:
times = [2, 3]
target = 5

Expected output:
expected = 6
Input:
std::vector<long long> times = {2, 3};
long long target = 5;

Expected output:
long long expected = 6;
Input:
long[] times = new long[] {2, 3};
long target = 5;

Expected output:
long expected = 6;

Explanation

At time 6 the machines have made 3 + 2 = 5 items. At time 5 they have made only 2 + 1 = 3.

Example 2
Input:
times = [4]
target = 3

Expected output:
expected = 12
Input:
std::vector<long long> times = {4};
long long target = 3;

Expected output:
long long expected = 12;
Input:
long[] times = new long[] {4};
long target = 3;

Expected output:
long expected = 12;

Explanation

One machine completes its third item at 3 × 4 = 12 seconds.

How to approach it

Try on your own first, then open one hint at a time.

Hint 1

For any chosen time, you can count how many items all machines together would finish by then.

Hint 2

The answer is the earliest time where that produced count reaches the target.

Hint 3

A monotonic condition like this is well suited to searching over time instead of simulating production.

Expected complexity

O(n log T) time, O(1) extra space

References

This challenge is adapted for CodeUtility. Follow the statement and constraints above.

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