Minimum Cost to Connect Sticks

You have some number of sticks with positive integer lengths. These lengths are given as an array sticks, where sticks[i] is the length of the iᵗʰ stick.

You can connect any two sticks of lengths x and y into one stick by paying a cost of x + y. You must connect all the sticks until there is only one stick remaining.

Return the minimum cost of connecting all the given sticks into one stick in this way.

Example 1:

Input: sticks = [2,4,3]

Output: 14

Explanation:
You start with sticks = [2,4,3].

1. Combine sticks 2 and 3 for a cost of 2 + 3 = 5. Now you have sticks = [5,4].
2. Combine sticks 5 and 4 for a cost of 5 + 4 = 9. Now you have sticks = [9].
   There is only one stick left, so you are done. The total cost is 5 + 9 = 14.

Example 2:

Input: sticks = [1,8,3,5]

Output: 30

Explanation:
You start with sticks = [1,8,3,5].

1. Combine sticks 1 and 3 for a cost of 1 + 3 = 4. Now you have sticks = [4,8,5].
2. Combine sticks 4 and 5 for a cost of 4 + 5 = 9. Now you have sticks = [9,8].
3. Combine sticks 9 and 8 for a cost of 9 + 8 = 17. Now you have sticks = [17].
   There is only one stick left, so you are done. The total cost is 4 + 9 + 17 = 30.

Example 3:

Input: sticks = [5]

Output: 0

Explanation:
There is only one stick, so you don't need to do anything. The total cost is 0.

Constraints:

• 1 <= sticks.length <= 10⁴
• 1 <= sticks[i] <= 10⁴