Get Minimum Operations

Problem Overview

• Task: Find the minimum operations to make adjacent stacks alternate in parity (even vs odd) by allowing halving of any element.
• Input/Output: Array items of length n (1 ≤ n ≤ 1e5, 1 ≤ items[i] ≤ 2^30); output the minimal operation count.
• Context: Organizing HackerMall’s row of item stacks by removing half the items when needed.
• Source: Jpmorgan interviews; a coding interview problem and common interview question.