File: categorize-box-according-to-criteria/solution.py

Date: 2026-06-06

Time: 15:32

Purpose

This file implements LeetCode 2525 — Categorize Box According to Criteria. It classifies a box into one of four categories based on its physical dimensions and mass. It's a standalone solution module following the repo's convention of one problem per directory.

Key Components

boxCategory(length, width, height, mass) -> str — The sole public function. Takes four integers describing a box and returns one of "Both ", "Bulky ", "Heavy ", or "Neither " (all with a trailing space, matching LeetCode's expected output format).

Two intermediate booleans drive the classification:

• bulky: True if any single dimension is >= 10,000 *or* the volume (product of all three dimensions) is >= 10^9.
• heavy: True if mass >= 100.

Patterns

• Flag-then-branch: Computes two boolean flags first, then uses a cascading if/elif to map the four possible (bulky, heavy) combinations to their string labels. This separates classification logic from the threshold checks.
• any() with a generator: The bulky check uses any(d >= 10_000 for d in (length, width, height)) — idiomatic Python for short-circuit evaluation over the three dimensions. The volume check is joined with or, so the dimension check is evaluated first and can skip the multiplication entirely.
• Numeric literal underscores: 10_000 and 10**9 for readability.

Dependencies

Imports: None — pure function with no external dependencies.

Imported by: The categorize-box-according-to-criteria/test_solution.py file. The massive "Imported By" list in the prompt is an artifact of the repo's test harness — those other test files don't actually import *this* solution; they follow the same import pattern for their own respective solutions.

Flow

1. Evaluate bulky — short-circuits on the first dimension >= 10,000; if none qualify, falls through to the volume comparison.

2. Evaluate heavy — single comparison.

3. Enter the if-chain. The ordering matters: Both is checked first (requires both flags true), then Bulky-only, then Heavy-only, then the default Neither.

The function is a pure mapping from (int, int, int, int) -> str with no side effects.

Invariants

• Exactly one of the four return values is always produced — the if-chain is exhaustive because the final bare return covers the (False, False) case.
• Every returned string has a trailing space. This is a LeetCode-specific contract (the problem statement specifies it).
• The thresholds are hardcoded constants: 10,000 for individual dimensions, 10^9 for volume, 100 for mass. No parameterization.

Error Handling

None. The function trusts its inputs are non-negative integers per the problem constraints. No validation, no exceptions. If called with negative dimensions or non-integer types, behavior is undefined but Python's comparison operators will still return *something*.