From d7f9221b9906e3daacaad20c706718ab7a6d622c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Justin Chiam <235694260+justin-chiam@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2026 15:50:44 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] fix: validate scores length is a power of 2 in minimax

---
 backtracking/minimax.py | 6 ++++++
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/backtracking/minimax.py b/backtracking/minimax.py
index 4eef90b75483..96fd88cd5afa 100644
--- a/backtracking/minimax.py
+++ b/backtracking/minimax.py
@@ -46,6 +46,10 @@ def minimax(
     Traceback (most recent call last):
         ...
     ValueError: Scores cannot be empty
+    >>> minimax(0, 0, True, [1, 2, 3], 2)
+    Traceback (most recent call last):
+        ...
+    ValueError: Number of scores must be a power of 2
     >>> scores = [3, 5, 2, 9, 12, 5, 23, 23]
     >>> height = math.log(len(scores), 2)
     >>> minimax(0, 0, True, scores, height)
@@ -56,6 +60,8 @@ def minimax(
         raise ValueError("Depth cannot be less than 0")
     if len(scores) == 0:
         raise ValueError("Scores cannot be empty")
+    if len(scores) & (len(scores) - 1) != 0:
+        raise ValueError("Number of scores must be a power of 2")
 
     # Base case: If the current depth equals the height of the tree,
     # return the score of the current node.