Python solution for Problem D. Deceitful War - Google Code Jam 2014

deceitful_war.py

# Google Code Jam 2014
# Problem D. Deceitful War
#     https://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2974486/dashboard#s=p3
# Author: jamie.xu - https://github.com/eytoss
import copy
PROBLEM_ID = "D" # A B or C
PROBLEM_SIZE = "large"

def run():
    """I/O handler"""
    file_name = "{}-{}".format(PROBLEM_ID, PROBLEM_SIZE)
    in_f = open('{}.txt'.format(file_name), 'r')
    out_f = open('{}.out'.format(file_name), 'w')
    num_of_case = int(in_f.readline().rstrip('\n'))
    print "num of cases:{}".format(num_of_case)
    for i in range(1, num_of_case+1):
        solve_case(in_f, out_f, i)

def solve_case(in_f, out_f, case_index):
    """problem solver"""
    print "case #{}".format(case_index)
    in_f.readline()
    A = [float(x) for x in in_f.readline().rstrip('\n').split(" ")]
    B = [float(x) for x in in_f.readline().rstrip('\n').split(" ")]
    total_tile = len(A)
    A.sort()
    A.reverse()
    B.sort()
    B.reverse()
    A1 = copy.copy(A)
    B1 = copy.copy(B)
    # start war
    WP = game(A, B)
    # start deceitful war
    DWP = total_tile - game(B1, A1)
    out_f.write("Case #{}: {} {}\n".format(case_index, DWP, WP))

def game(A, B):
    """return game result of A in favor of B"""
    # strategy for war, used by B(Dan):
    # After A states a weigh:
    #  if has bigger one, use lowest-bigger one. 
    #  else, discard lowest one.
    
    # strategy for deceitful war, used by A(Naomi):
    # find the smallest-bigger one to B's current smallest one, 
    #  but state the weight to be bigger than B's biggest one,
    #  this way B would discard the lowest one, based on the war strategy.

    #  NOTE: actually, no need to be thus aggressive as above, any bigger is fine
    AW = 0
    BW = 0
    while len(A) > 0:
        if B[0] > A[0]: # win one!
            BW += 1
            B.pop(0)
            A.pop(0)
        else: # there is no equal, throw smallest one
            AW += 1
            A.pop(0)
            B.pop(-1)
    return AW

run()

Google stated that this would be the hardest one in this round, I am glad I didn't get scared by that and solved this one before trying to solve Minesweeper Master, which I personally think is much harder.