The Majority Element

An array has n elements. One element appears more than n/2 times. You can only compare two elements for equality. How do you find the majority element with O(n) comparisons?

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Quick Answer & Explanation

Boyer-Moore Majority Vote: maintain

The answer to this riddle is Boyer-Moore Majority Vote: maintain. Difficulty: Hard · Solved by 18,943 puzzle lovers.

Boyer-Moore Majority Vote: maintain a candidate and counter. For each element, if counter is 0, set new candidate. If same as candidate, increment; otherwise decrement. Final candidate is the majority.

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