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#1688 - Count of Matches in Tournament

Problem Description

You are given an integer n, the number of teams in a tournament that has strange rules:

  • If the current number of teams is even, each team gets paired with another team. A total of n / 2 matches are played, and n / 2 teams advance to the next round.
  • If the current number of teams is odd, one team randomly advances in the tournament, and the rest gets paired. A total of (n - 1) / 2 matches are played, and (n - 1) / 2 + 1 teams advance to the next round.

Return the number of matches played in the tournament until a winner is decided.

Solution

/**
 * @param {number} n
 * @return {number}
 */
var numberOfMatches = function(n) {
  return n - 1;
};