<h2><a href="https://leetcode.com/problems/minimum-time-to-make-rope-colorful/">1578. Minimum Time to Make Rope Colorful</a></h2><h3>Medium</h3><hr><div><p>Alice has <code>n</code> balloons arranged on a rope. You are given a <strong>0-indexed</strong> string <code>colors</code> where <code>colors[i]</code> is the color of the <code>i<sup>th</sup></code> balloon.</p>

<p>Alice wants the rope to be <strong>colorful</strong>. She does not want <strong>two consecutive balloons</strong> to be of the same color, so she asks Bob for help. Bob can remove some balloons from the rope to make it <strong>colorful</strong>. You are given a <strong>0-indexed</strong> integer array <code>neededTime</code> where <code>neededTime[i]</code> is the time (in seconds) that Bob needs to remove the <code>i<sup>th</sup></code> balloon from the rope.</p>

<p>Return <em>the <strong>minimum time</strong> Bob needs to make the rope <strong>colorful</strong></em>.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/12/13/ballon1.jpg" style="width: 404px; height: 243px;">
<pre><strong>Input:</strong> colors = "abaac", neededTime = [1,2,3,4,5]
<strong>Output:</strong> 3
<strong>Explanation:</strong> In the above image, 'a' is blue, 'b' is red, and 'c' is green.
Bob can remove the blue balloon at index 2. This takes 3 seconds.
There are no longer two consecutive balloons of the same color. Total time = 3.</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/12/13/balloon2.jpg" style="width: 244px; height: 243px;">
<pre><strong>Input:</strong> colors = "abc", neededTime = [1,2,3]
<strong>Output:</strong> 0
<strong>Explanation:</strong> The rope is already colorful. Bob does not need to remove any balloons from the rope.
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 3:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2021/12/13/balloon3.jpg" style="width: 404px; height: 243px;">
<pre><strong>Input:</strong> colors = "aabaa", neededTime = [1,2,3,4,1]
<strong>Output:</strong> 2
<strong>Explanation:</strong> Bob will remove the ballons at indices 0 and 4. Each ballon takes 1 second to remove.
There are no longer two consecutive balloons of the same color. Total time = 1 + 1 = 2.
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>n == colors.length == neededTime.length</code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= n &lt;= 10<sup>5</sup></code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= neededTime[i] &lt;= 10<sup>4</sup></code></li>
	<li><code>colors</code> contains only lowercase English letters.</li>
</ul>
</div>