Huffman Coding

Optimal prefix codes with priority queue.

7 min readMastering Data Structures & Algorithms for Software Engineering InterviewsCode

Prefix Codes

Prefix code: no code is prefix of another. Enables unambiguous decoding without delimiters. Binary tree: left=0, right=1. Leaves = symbols. Code = path from root. Optimal prefix code minimizes weighted path length (sum of freq × code length).

Huffman Algorithm

Greedy: combine two lowest frequency nodes into parent with sum frequency. Repeat until one tree remains. Use min-heap for O(n log n).

Implementation

Gohuffman-coding.go

56 linesLn 1, Col 1Go

Min-heap of nodes by frequency. Pop two smallest, create parent with combined frequency, push back. Tree built bottom-up. Traverse tree to generate codes (left=0, right=1).

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