Final answer:
The student's question involves writing an algorithm to determine the delivery status of messages based on a value k and sorted timestamps. Each message is marked as delivered (true) if its timestamp is within the range defined by k, otherwise undelivered (false). An example algorithm is provided to illustrate the process.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question refers to determining whether a given message in a list of messages has been delivered, based on an integer k, an array of n strings named messages, and a corresponding sorted array of integers named timestamps. To address the query, one would typically write an algorithm that checks each message's delivery status. The true or false output indicates whether the message is delivered within a certain timeframe relative to k. To write such an algorithm, one would use the timestamps to see if each message was received within the acceptable window determined by k. If a message's timestamp fits within this window, the message is considered delivered (true); otherwise, it's not (false).
Example Algorithm
- Iterate through each message in the messages array.
- For each message, compare its corresponding timestamp in the timestamps array to the integer k.
- If the timestamp is less than or equal to k, report true (the message is delivered).
- If the timestamp is greater than k, report false (the message is not delivered).
This algorithm assumes that the messages array and the timestamps array are correctly aligned in terms of index positions such that for a given index i, messages[i] corresponds to timestamps[i]. Moreover, to report the delivery status efficiently, one must consider the sorted nature of the timestamps array, which can potentially reduce the computational complexity of the solution.