Level 5Exercise #115

Nearest sorted value

Return the sorted-list value closest to target; prefer the smaller on a tie.

What you’ll practice

This Level 5 exercise focuses on bisect neighbor 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:nearest([1,5,9], target=7)

Output:5

Reference Solution

Reveal Reference Solution

def nearest(values: list[int], target: int) -> int:
    from bisect import bisect_left
    i = bisect_left(values, target)
    candidates = values[max(0,i-1):min(len(values),i+1)]
    return min(candidates, key=lambda value: (abs(value-target), value))

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Nearest sorted value

What you’ll practice

Sample Test Cases

Further Reading

Reference Solution