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KMeans From Scratch
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KMeans From Scratch

HardPython

Problem

Tech(x) groups vectors generated by its embedding service to identify similar content. Implement KMeans clustering from scratch using Lloyd's algorithm, without machine-learning libraries.

Given n points in d-dimensional space, assign each point to its nearest centroid, recompute each centroid as the mean of its assigned points, and repeat until convergence or max_iters is reached. If a cluster receives no points, retain its previous centroid. Distance ties must be resolved by choosing the smallest cluster index.

Formal Specification

Implement kmeans(points, k, initial_centroids, max_iters), where points and initial_centroids are nonempty lists of equal-dimensional numeric vectors. Return a dictionary with labels, a list of n cluster indices, and centroids, a list of k vectors. Stop early when every centroid coordinate changes by at most 1e-9.

Constraints

  • 1 <= n <= 10^4
  • 1 <= d <= 50
  • 1 <= k <= n
  • 1 <= max_iters <= 100
  • Coordinates are finite numbers in [-10^6, 10^6]
  • initial_centroids contains exactly k vectors

Function Signature

def kmeans(points, k, initial_centroids, max_iters):
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