528 Random Pick with Weight

You are given a 0-indexed array of positive integers w where w[i] describes the weight of the ith index.

You need to implement the function pickIndex(), which randomly picks an index in the range [0, w.length - 1] (inclusive) and returns it. The probability of picking an index i is w[i] / sum(w).

  • For example, if w = [1, 3], the probability of picking index 0 is 1 / (1 + 3) = 0.25 (i.e., 25%), and the probability of picking index 1 is 3 / (1 + 3) = 0.75 (i.e., 75%).

Example 1:

Input
["Solution","pickIndex"]
[[[1]],[]]
Output
[null,0]

Explanation
Solution solution = new Solution([1]);
solution.pickIndex(); // return 0.
The only option is to return 0 since there is only one element in w.

Example 2:

Input
["Solution","pickIndex","pickIndex","pickIndex","pickIndex","pickIndex"]
[[[1,3]],[],[],[],[],[]]
Output
[null,1,1,1,1,0]

Explanation
Solution solution = new Solution([1, 3]);
solution.pickIndex(); // return 1.
It is returning the second element (index = 1) that has a probability of 3/4.
solution.pickIndex(); // return 1
solution.pickIndex(); // return 1
solution.pickIndex(); // return 1
solution.pickIndex(); // return 0.
It is returning the first element (index = 0) that has a probability of 1/4.

Since this is a randomization problem, multiple answers are allowed.
All of the following outputs can be considered correct:
[null,1,1,1,1,0]
[null,1,1,1,1,1]
[null,1,1,1,0,0]
[null,1,1,1,0,1]
[null,1,0,1,0,0]
......
and so on.

Constraints:

  • 1 <= w.length <= 104
  • 1 <= w[i] <= 105
  • pickIndex will be called at most 104 times.
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class Solution:

    def __init__(self, w: List[int]):
        self.presum = [0]
        for v in w:
            self.presum.append(self.presum[-1] + v)

    def pickIndex(self) -> int:
        rv = random.randint(1, self.presum[-1])
        return bisect.bisect_left(self.presum, rv) - 1


# Your Solution object will be instantiated and called as such:
# obj = Solution(w)
# param_1 = obj.pickIndex()