Reduction operations to make the array elements equal

Array Sorting

72.5% acceptance

Feb 25, 2026

1273

Given an integer array nums, return the number of operations to make all elements in nums equal by repeatedly reducing the largest value to the next largest.

Solution

Rust

Time O(n log n)

Space O(1)

LeetCode

solution.rs

impl Solution {
  pub fn reduction_operations(mut nums: Vec<i32>) -> i32 {
    nums.sort_unstable();
    let mut ops = 0i32;
    let mut levels = 0i32;
    for i in 1..nums.len() {
      if nums[i] > nums[i - 1] {
        levels += 1;
      }
      ops += levels;
    }
    ops
  }
}