Task states: Choose minimal changes that are necessary to take advantage of generics.Replace line //4 and //5 with: Integer i = map.get(b); return i == null? 0:i;
This change is fine if coupled with option 2 but it is not required.
Automatic casting is one of the advantages of generics. So I selected the option with removal of manual casting.
I consider it's right option as there is no information that answers should be independent from each other.