Finding two non-subsequent elements in array which sum is minimal

Question

Intro: As far as I could search, this question wasn\'t asked in SO yet.
This is an interview question.
I am not even specifically looking for a code sol

Answer 1

I think this does not need any deep reasoning, and can be solved in a single pass, keeping the optimal solution of the array elements processed so far:

public static int[] minimumSumOfNonAcjacentElements(int[] a) {
    // the result for the sequence a[1:i]
    int minSum = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
    int minSumElement1 = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
    int minSumElement2 = Integer.MAX_VALUE;

    // the minimum element eligible for joining with a[i], i.e. from a[1 : i-2]
    int minElement = a[1];

    int prevElement = a[2]; // a[i - 1]
    for (int i = 3; i + 1 < a.length; i++) {
        int sum = minElement + a[i];
        if (sum < minSum) {
            minSum = sum;
            minSumElement1 = minElement;
            minSumElement2 = a[i];
        }

        if (prevElement < minElement) {
            minElement = prevElement;
        }
        prevElement = a[i];
    }

    return new int[] {minSumElement1, minSumElement2};
}

Here's some test code, with the corner cases from OP's question:

private static void test(int minSumIndex1, int minSumIndex2, int... input) {
    int[] result = minimumSumOfNonAcjacentElements(input);
    if (result[0] == minSumIndex1 && result[1] == minSumIndex2) {
        // ok
    } else {
        throw new AssertionError("Expected: " + minSumIndex1 + ", " + minSumIndex2 + ". Actual=" + Arrays.toString(result));
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    test(2, 2, 4, 2, 1, 2, 4);
    test(1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 4, 2, 6);
    test(1, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 4, 2, 0);
    System.out.println("All tests passed.");
}