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Implement a Rate Limiter
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Implement a Rate Limiter

HardPython

Problem

Implement a rate limiter (similar to a token bucket algorithm).

Asked in the technical phone screen stage. Given nondecreasing request timestamps, a bucket capacity, and a refill rate, determine whether each request is allowed. The bucket starts full, and every request consumes one token.

Input and Output

Implement def rate_limiter(request_times, capacity, refill_rate):. Return a boolean list with one result per timestamp. Refill tokens continuously between requests, capped at capacity.

Constraints

  • 0 <= len(request_times) <= 1000
  • request_times contains nonnegative numbers in nondecreasing order
  • 1 <= capacity <= 10^9
  • 0 <= refill_rate <= 10^9
  • Each request consumes exactly one token

Function Signature

def rate_limiter(request_times, capacity, refill_rate):
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