Problem:
Score : 300 points

Problem Statement

There are N people standing in a row from west to east.
Each person is facing east or west.
The directions of the people is given as a string S of length N.
The i-th person from the west is facing east if S_i = E, and west if S_i = W.

You will appoint one of the N people as the leader, then command the rest of them to face in the direction of the leader.
Here, we do not care which direction the leader is facing.

The people in the row hate to change their directions, so you would like to select the leader so that the number of people who have to change their directions is minimized.
Find the minimum number of people who have to change their directions.

Constraints

2 \leq N \leq 3 \times 10^5

|S| = N

S_i is E or W.

Input

Input is given from Standard Input in the following format:

N
S

Output

Print the minimum number of people who have to change their directions.

Sample Input 1

5
WEEWW

Sample Output 1

1

Assume that we appoint the third person from the west as the leader.
Then, the first person from the west needs to face east and has to turn around.
The other people do not need to change their directions, so the number of people who have to change their directions is 1 in this case.
It is not possible to have 0 people who have to change their directions, so the answer is 1.

Sample Input 2

12
WEWEWEEEWWWE

Sample Output 2

4

Sample Input 3

8
WWWWWEEE

Sample Output 3

3

Solution in Kotlin (1.0.0) (judge verdict: Accepted)

import java.io.PrintWriter
import java.util.*
import java.math.*
import java.lang.*
import kotlin.comparisons.*

val pw = PrintWriter(System.out)
val MOD: Long = (1e+9 + 7).toLong()

fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val n = readInt()
    val s = read().toList()

    var lEast = 0
    var lWest = 0
    var rEast = s.filter { it == 'E' }.count()
    var rWest = s.filter { it == 'W' }.count()
    var min = n
    s.forEach { p ->
        val changedNum = if(p == 'W') {
            rWest--
            lWest++
            (lWest-1) + rEast
        } else {
            rEast--
            lEast++
            lWest + rEast
        }
        if(min > changedNum) {
            min = changedNum
        }
    }
    println(min)
    pw.flush()
}

/****** Declared Functions and Data Structures ******/
// IO
fun read() = readLine()!!
fun readInt() = read().toInt()
fun readLong() = read().toLong()
fun readDouble() = read().toDouble()
fun readListOfString() = read().split(" ")
fun readListOfInt() = readListOfString().map { it.toInt() }
fun readListOfLong() = readListOfString().map { it.toLong() }
fun readListOfDouble() = readListOfString().map { it.toDouble() }

fun Double.format(digits: Int) = String.format("%.${digits}f", this)
fun Float.format(digits: Int) = String.format("%.${digits}f", this)

fun print(value: Any) { pw.print(value) }
fun println(value : Any) { pw.println(value) }


// Extensions
fun<T> List<T>.toBuckets(bucketKeys: List<T>): Map<T, Int> {
    val buckets = bucketKeys.associate { t -> Pair(t, 0) }.toMutableMap()
    this.forEach { t ->
        buckets[t] = buckets[t]!! + 1
    }
    return buckets
}

fun <K, V> Map<K, V>.toMutableMap(): MutableMap<K, V> = HashMap(this)

// Util Functions
fun<T> permutations(src: List<T>): List<List<T>> {
    if(src.size == 1) return listOf(src)
    val perms = mutableListOf<List<T>>()
    val insertElement = src[0]
    permutations(src.drop(1)).forEach { perm ->
        for(i in 0..perm.size) {
            val newPerm = perm.toMutableList()
            newPerm.add(i, insertElement)
            perms.add(newPerm.toList())
        }
    }
    return perms
}

// return nCr, if you want nCr, please access v[n][r]
fun combinations(n: Long): List<List<Long>> {
    val v = (0..n).map { (0..n).map{0L}.toMutableList() }.toMutableList()
    for(i in 0 until v.size) {
        v[i][0] = 1L
        v[i][i] = 1L
    }
    for(i in 0 until v.size) {
        for(j in 1 until i) {
            v[i][j] = (v[i-1][j-1] + v[i-1][j]) % MOD
        }
    }
    return v.map { it.toList() }.toList()
}

// should be a >= b
fun gcd(a: Long, b: Long): Long = 
    if(b == 0L) a else gcd(b, a % b)

// shoud be a >= b
fun lcm(a: Long, b: Long): Long = 
    a / gcd(a, b) * b

fun sumDigits(num_: Long): Long {
    var num = num_
    var rtn: Long = 0
    while(num != 0.toLong()) {
        val tmp = num % 10
        rtn += tmp
        num /= 10
    }
    return rtn
}

fun Double.isDecimal(): Boolean = ((this - Math.floor(this)) != 0.0)

// Data Structures
class Stack<T>(private var st: MutableList<T> = mutableListOf<T>()) {
    fun isEmpty() = st.isEmpty()
    fun top(): T = st.last()
    fun push(e: T) { st.add(e) }
    fun pop() { st = st.dropLast(1).toMutableList() }
}

class Queue<T>(private var que: MutableList<T> = mutableListOf<T>()) {
    fun isEmpty() = que.isEmpty()
    fun top(): T = que.first()
    fun push(e: T) { que.add(e) }
    fun pop() { que = que.drop(1).toMutableList() }
}