Latest TCS Aptitude Question SOLUTION: a call center agent has a list of 305 phone numbers of people in alphabetic order of names (but she does not have any of the names). She needs to quickly contact Deepak Sharma to c

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(#M40115890) TCS question Keep an EYE

a call center agent has a list of 305 phone numbers
of people in alphabetic order of names (but she does
not have any of the names). She needs to quickly
contact Deepak Sharma to convey a message to him.
If each call takes 2 minutes to complete, and every
call is answered, what is the minimum amount of time
in which she can guarantee to deliver the message to
Mr Sharma.

Asked In TCS shikha (9 years ago)

Solved Emanuel Abhishek Murmu Read Solution (6)

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Emanuel Abhishek Murmu  (9 years ago) Best Solution

Since the agent does not have any of the names, he calls all 305 numbers. Depending on the response, he divides the number into two halves 305/2 i.e. 152 or 153(choose as you like,I chose 152), if the name deepak sharma lies in first half of 152, then he calls all 152 numbers and check each time dividing by 2 until he finally connects with deepak sharma... so the sequence will be 152,76,38,19,9,4,2,1,0. since total number of tries is 9... minimum time required will be 9*2= 18minutes

Is this solution Helpfull? Yes (36) | No (2)  

Akshara  (9 years ago)

How can we divide the numbers,based on response?Plz....anyone explain......!

Is this solution Helpfull? Yes (5) | No (1)  

mohit  (8 years ago)

the call center agent first calls 305 and asks their name(worst case) then calls the middle no. i.e. (305/2)=152.5(take 152 or 153 depends on you) and asks them their name to get an idea of whether to go to left or right side of (152 (my take)) no. directory and suppose person replies R then agent will go to left side and again call (152/2=76) and asks their name and in similar way filter the list by either going to left (or right side ) and thus the list will be shortened as 305,153,76,38,19,9,4,2,1 .So minimum time= 9*2=18 mins.

Is this solution Helpfull? Yes (4) | No   

abhishek gupta  (9 years ago)

ans 16min....0th case will not be included,bcoz 0th person will be the same person.

Is this solution Helpfull? Yes (1) | No   

Mohammed Ismail  (8 years ago)

It can be done by balancing method Firs split into two set of numbers
152 153 -Comparison Count -1
If you check the last person name if it is less than D then take first pair
and start splitting
76 76 -Comparison Count -2
38 38 -Comparison Count -3
19 19 -Comparison Count -4
9 10 -Comparison Count -5
4 5 -Comparison Count -6
2 2 -Comparison Count -7
1 1 -Comparison Count -8

0 Count 9 hence
9*2=18 minutes

Is this solution Helpfull? Yes (1) | No   

prasad  (9 years ago)

since those are in alpha numaric order but doent have names.(like binary search algorithm).

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