1882. Process Tasks Using Servers

Difficulty: Medium

Topics: Staff, Array, Heap (Priority Queue), Weekly Contest 243

You are given two 0-indexed integer arrays servers and tasks of lengths n and m respectively. servers[i] is the weight of the iᵗʰ server, and tasks[j] is the time needed to process the jᵗʰ task in seconds.

Tasks are assigned to the servers using a task queue. Initially, all servers are free, and the queue is empty.

At second j, the jᵗʰ task is inserted into the queue (starting with the 0ᵗʰ task being inserted at second 0). As long as there are free servers and the queue is not empty, the task in the front of the queue will be assigned to a free server with the smallest weight, and in case of a tie, it is assigned to a free server with the smallest index.

If there are no free servers and the queue is not empty, we wait until a server becomes free and immediately assign the next task. If multiple servers become free at the same time, then multiple tasks from the queue will be assigned in order of insertion following the weight and index priorities above.

A server that is assigned task j at second t will be free again at second t + tasks[j].

Build an array ans of length m, where ans[j] is the index of the server the jᵗʰ task will be assigned to.

Return the array ans.

Example 1:

Input: servers = [3,3,2], tasks = [1,2,3,2,1,2]
Output: [2,2,0,2,1,2]
Explanation:
- Events in chronological order go as follows:
  - At second 0, task 0 is added and processed using server 2 until second 1.
  - At second 1, server 2 becomes free. Task 1 is added and processed using server 2 until second 3.
  - At second 2, task 2 is added and processed using server 0 until second 5.
  - At second 3, server 2 becomes free. Task 3 is added and processed using server 2 until second 5.
  - At second 4, task 4 is added and processed using server 1 until second 5.
  - At second 5, all servers become free. Task 5 is added and processed using server 2 until second 7.

Example 2:

Input: servers = [5,1,4,3,2], tasks = [2,1,2,4,5,2,1]
Output: [1,4,1,4,1,3,2]
Explanation:
- Events in chronological order go as follows:
  - At second 0, task 0 is added and processed using server 1 until second 2.
  - At second 1, task 1 is added and processed using server 4 until second 2.
  - At second 2, servers 1 and 4 become free. Task 2 is added and processed using server 1 until second 4.
  - At second 3, task 3 is added and processed using server 4 until second 7.
  - At second 4, server 1 becomes free. Task 4 is added and processed using server 1 until second 9.
  - At second 5, task 5 is added and processed using server 3 until second 7.
  - At second 6, task 6 is added and processed using server 2 until second 7.

Example 3:

Input: servers = [1], tasks = [1,1,1]
Output: [0,0,0]

Example 4:

Input: servers = [3,3,2], tasks = [1]
Output: [2]

Example 5:

Input: servers = [1,1], tasks = [10,10,10]
Output: [0,1,0]

Example 6:

Input: servers = [2,2,2], tasks = [5,5,5,5]
Output: [0,1,2,0]

Example 7:

Input: servers = [2,1], tasks = [1,1,1,1,1]
Output: [1,1,1,1,1]

Example 8:

Input: servers = [1,1], tasks = [2,2,2,2]
Output: [0,1,0,1]

Example 9:

Input: servers = [10,20,30], tasks = [1]
Output: [0]

Example 10:

Input: servers = [1,1,1], tasks = [1,1,1]
Output: [0,0,0]

Example 11:

Input: servers = [3,1,2], tasks = [5,1,1,1,1]
Output: [1,2,2,2,2]

Example 12:

Input: servers = [1,2,3], tasks = [1,1,1,1,1,1]
Output: [0,0,0,0,0,0]

Constraints:

servers.length == n
tasks.length == m
1 <= n, m <= 2 * 10⁵
1 <= servers[i], tasks[j] <= 2 * 10⁵

Hint:

You can maintain a Heap of available Servers and a Heap of unavailable servers
Note that the tasks will be processed in the input order so you just need to find the x-th server that will be available according to the rules

Similar Questions:

2050. Parallel Courses III

Solution:

We implement assignTasks() using two SplPriorityQueue heaps — one for currently available servers (ordered by smallest weight, then smallest index) and one for busy servers (ordered by earliest free time). We iterate through tasks in arrival order, releasing any servers whose free-time has passed, and if none are free, we fast-forward the clock to the earliest server's free time. This efficiently simulates the exact priority rules described in the problem.

Approach

Encode server priority into a single integer using weight * (n + 1) + index, so a min-heap on that value produces the required tie-breaking (smallest weight → smallest index).
Two heaps:
- available: all free servers; top = best choice for next task.
- busy: all busy servers; top = earliest freeing server (freeTime first, then arbitrary since we re-add to available).
Clock management: currentTime advances to the max of the current second j and any required wait time when servers are busy.
Release / assign cycle per task:
1. Advance clock to max(currentTime, j).
2. Pop every busy server whose freeTime ≤ currentTime back into available.
3. If available is empty, pop the earliest finishing busy server, set currentTime to its freeTime, and release any servers free at or before that time.
4. Pop the best server from available, record its index in ans, and push (currentTime + duration, index) into busy.
Since SplPriorityQueue is a max-heap, we negate numeric priorities to simulate min-heap behavior.

Let's implement this solution in PHP: 1882. Process Tasks Using Servers

<?php /** * @param Integer[] $servers * @param Integer[] $tasks * @return Integer[] */ function assignTasks(array $servers, array $tasks): array { ... ... ... /** * go to ./solution.php */ } // Test cases // Note: use json_encode() because PHP cannot echo an array directly. echo json_encode(assignTasks([3,3,2], [1,2,3,2,1,2])) . "\n"; // Output: [2,2,0,2,1,2] echo json_encode(assignTasks([5,1,4,3,2], [2,1,2,4,5,2,1])) . "\n"; // Output: [1,4,1,4,1,3,2] echo json_encode(assignTasks([1], [1,1,1])) . "\n"; // Output: [0,0,0] echo json_encode(assignTasks([3,3,2], [1])) . "\n"; // Output: [2] echo json_encode(assignTasks([1,1], [10,10,10])) . "\n"; // Output: [0,1,0] echo json_encode(assignTasks([2,2,2], [5,5,5,5])) . "\n"; // Output: [0,1,2,0] echo json_encode(assignTasks([2,1], [1,1,1,1,1])) . "\n"; // Output: [1,1,1,1,1] echo json_encode(assignTasks([1,1], [2,2,2,2])) . "\n"; // Output: [0,1,0,1] echo json_encode(assignTasks([10,20,30], [1])) . "\n"; // Output: [0] echo json_encode(assignTasks([1,1,1], [1,1,1])) . "\n"; // Output: [0,0,0] echo json_encode(assignTasks([3,1,2], [5,1,1,1,1])) . "\n"; // Output: [1,2,2,2,2] echo json_encode(assignTasks([1,2,3], [1,1,1,1,1,1])) . "\n"; // Output: [0,0,0,0,0,0] ?>

Explanation

Priority packing: With base = n + 1, weight * base + index is unique per server and preserves lexicographic order (weight, then index) under numeric comparison. Negating it turns the max-heap into the desired min-heap.
Busy heap stores [freeTime, serverIndex] with priority -freeTime, so the smallest freeTime is always extracted first.
Releasing servers: Before each task assignment, all servers that have finished by currentTime are moved back to available, so the next task correctly sees the freshest set of free servers.
Forced wait: When available is empty (all servers busy), we pop the next-to-finish busy server, jump the clock forward, and release it (plus any ties) — guaranteeing at least one server is ready before assignment.
Same-second ties: Handled naturally because after freeing one server we continue draining the busy heap for all freeTime ≤ currentTime before picking.
Order of queue processing: Tasks are inserted in input order j = 0, 1, 2, …; because we process tasks sequentially and only advance the clock up to j, insertion order is preserved exactly as in the problem statement.

Complexity Analysis

Time Complexity: O((n + m) log n)
- Initial build of available: O(n log n).
- Per task: O(log n) heap insert + extract, plus amortized releases (each server is released at most once per task, so total releases over the run is bounded by m).
- m tasks × O(log n) = O(m log n).
- Combined: O((n + m) log n).
Space Complexity: O(n + m)
- available holds ≤ n servers; busy holds ≤ n servers → O(n).
- ans output array is O(m).

Contact Links

If you found this series helpful, please consider giving the repository a star on GitHub or sharing the post on your favorite social networks 😍. Your support would mean a lot to me!

If you want more helpful content like this, feel free to follow me: