Balloon Sharing Game Simulation in PHP | CodeSignal Learn

Balloon Sharing Game Simulation in PHP | CodeSignal Learn

Confident in our understanding of the problem, we move on to programming our solution. First, we need to set up a loop to iterate through the rounds of balloon sharing. This loop should continue as long as the array changes.

PHP

<?php

function solution($balloons) {
    $steps = 0;
    while (true) {
        $steps += 1;
        $newBalloons = $balloons;  // Store updated balloon counts
        // TODO: Share the balloons
        if ($newBalloons === $balloons) {
            break;
        }
        $balloons = $newBalloons;  // Update balloons with new counts.
    }
    return $steps;
}

$balloons = array(4, 1, 2);
echo solution($balloons);  // Output should be 3
?>

Our next step delves into the core game mechanics: sharing the balloons. Throughout each cycle, each house must share half of its balloons with the next house.

We must also ensure that the last house shares balloons with the first house at the end of each cycle — for this, we'll use the modulo operation.

Here's the updated solution, complete with the mechanics of balloon sharing:

PHP

<?php

function solution($balloons) {
    $n = count($balloons);
    $steps = 0;
    while (true) {
        $steps += 1;
        $newBalloons = $balloons;  // Store updated balloon counts
        for ($i = 0; $i < $n; $i++) {
            $share = intdiv($balloons[$i], 2);  // Balloons to share
            $newBalloons[$i] -= $share;  // Decrease balloons of current house
            $newBalloons[($i + 1) % $n] += $share;  // Increase balloons of next house
        }
        if ($newBalloons === $balloons) {
            break;
        }
        $balloons = $newBalloons;  // Update balloons with new counts.
    }
    return $steps;
}

$balloons = array(4, 1, 2);
echo solution($balloons);  // Output should be 3
?>