Given n ropes of different lengths, you need to connect these ropes into one rope.
You can connect only 2 ropes at a time. The cost required to connect 2 ropes is equal to the sum of their lengths.
The length of this connected rope is also equal to the sum of their lengths.
This process is repeated until n ropes are connected into a single rope.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://algo.monster/problems/connect_ropes/