Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array in DSA Go - Build from Scratch

Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array

📖 Scenario: You have a list of numbers that was originally sorted from smallest to largest. Then, it was rotated at some point, so the order is mixed but still sorted in parts. Your task is to find the smallest number in this rotated list.

🎯 Goal: Build a Go program that finds the minimum number in a rotated sorted array using a simple loop.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a slice called nums with the exact values 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2

Create a variable called min and set it to the first element of nums

Use a for loop with variable i to go through nums starting from index 1

Inside the loop, update min if the current element is smaller

Print the value of min

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Rotated sorted arrays appear in systems where data is shifted or rotated, like circular buffers or rotated logs. Finding the minimum quickly helps in searching and sorting tasks.

💼 Career

Understanding how to find minimums in rotated arrays is useful for software engineers working on search algorithms, system optimizations, and data processing.

1

Create the rotated sorted array

Create a slice called nums with these exact values: 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2

DSA Go

# Your code here

Hint

Use nums := []int{4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2} to create the slice.

2

Set the initial minimum value

Create a variable called min and set it to the first element of nums

DSA Go

package main

func main() {
    nums := []int{4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2}
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use min := nums[0] to start with the first number as minimum.

3

Find the minimum using a loop

Use a for loop with variable i starting from 1 to go through nums. Inside the loop, if nums[i] is smaller than min, update min to nums[i]

DSA Go

package main

func main() {
    nums := []int{4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2}
    min := nums[0]
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use for i := 1; i < len(nums); i++ and inside it check if nums[i] < min then update min.

4

Print the minimum value

Print the value of min using fmt.Println(min). Remember to import fmt at the top.

DSA Go

package main

// Import fmt package
import "fmt"

func main() {
    nums := []int{4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2}
    min := nums[0]
    for i := 1; i < len(nums); i++ {
        if nums[i] < min {
            min = nums[i]
        }
    }
    // Your code here
}

Hint

Use fmt.Println(min) to print the minimum number.