Section 1Understand Problem
Section 01
Understand the problem
Restate the problem precisely. Interviewers reward candidates who pause, define the contract, and name the guarantees before coding.
Problem statement
You have some number of sticks with positive integer lengths. These lengths are given as an array `sticks`. You can connect any two sticks of lengths `x` and `y` into one stick by paying a cost of `x + y`. You must connect all the sticks until there is only one stick remaining. Return the minimum cost of connecting all the given sticks into one stick in this way.
Example
sticks = [2,4,3] → 14
Constraints
1 ≤ sticks.length ≤ 10⁴ · 1 ≤ sticks[i] ≤ 10⁴
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