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LeetCode 1688, Easy. Topics: Math, Simulation. View on LeetCode. Generate this problem as a practice environment: tested reference solution, 36 parametrized pytest cases, and a playground notebook:

Problem

You are given an integer n, the number of teams in a tournament that has strange rules:
  • If the current number of teams is even, each team gets paired with another team. A total of n / 2 matches are played, and n / 2 teams advance to the next round.
  • If the current number of teams is odd, one team randomly advances in the tournament, and the rest gets paired. A total of (n - 1) / 2 matches are played, and (n - 1) / 2 + 1 teams advance to the next round.
Return the number of matches played in the tournament until a winner is decided.

Examples

Constraints

  • 1 <= n <= 200

Solution

Reference implementation from solution.py on GitHub, full suite in test_solution.py:

Complexity

Tags

NeetCode All.
Last modified on September 7, 2026