#0261

Koko Eating Bananas

MediumDSA28 min20 XP

Problem

Koko eats k bananas per hour from one pile at a time. Return the minimum integer k so all piles are eaten within h hours.

Why This Matters

This is the canonical binary-search-on-answer problem: the answer is not an index, but feasibility is monotonic.

Function Signature

def min_eating_speed(piles, h):

Examples

Example 1

Inputpiles = [3,6,7,11], h = 8

Output4

Speed 4 finishes in 8 hours; speed 3 is too slow.

Constraints

Return the exact requested value.
Handle edge cases cleanly.
Use the intended DSA pattern when brute force would scale poorly.

CodePython

def min_eating_speed(piles, h):
    """
    Input example: piles = [3,6,7,11], h = 8
    Return: 4
    Return the value from the function so the tests can compare it. Do not print unless the prompt asks.
    """
    # write your code here
    return 0

def min_eating_speed(piles, h):
    """
    Input example: piles = [3,6,7,11], h = 8
    Return: 4
    Return the value from the function so the tests can compare it. Do not print unless the prompt asks.
    """
    # write your code here
    return 0

Visible browser tests run here when available.

Testcases2 visible / 3 hidden categories

Classic speed

Input[3,6,7,11], h = 8

Expected4

4 is the smallest feasible speed.

Large pile

Input[30,11,23,4,20], h = 5

Expected30

Only speed 30 can finish one pile per hour.

Hidden Test Categories

h much larger than piles countsingle pileanswer near lower bound