
class Solution:
def minDeletion(self, nums: List[int]) -> int:
i = 0
ans = 0
while i < len(nums) - 1:
if nums[i] != nums[i + 1]:
i += 2
continue
ans += 1
i += 1
return ans if (len(nums) - ans) % 2 == 0 else ans + 1