Level 5Exercise #111

Insertion point on the left

Return where target belongs before any equal values.

What you’ll practice

This Level 5 exercise focuses on bisect_left in the Algorithms curriculum. Solve the challenge prompt above using clear, idiomatic Python and the relevant language or standard-library tools.

Relevant Python reference: bisect — Array bisection algorithm.

Sample Test Cases

Example #1

Input:left_index([1,3,3,7], target=3)

Output:1

Reference Solution

Reveal Reference Solution

def left_index(values: list[int], target: int) -> int:
    from bisect import bisect_left
    return bisect_left(values, target)

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Insertion point on the left

What you’ll practice

Sample Test Cases

Further Reading

Reference Solution