How to Distribute Halloween Candies by Rating Value in Java
The challenge
There are N children standing in a line. Each child is assigned a rating value.
You are giving candies to these children subjected to the following requirements:
- Each child must have at least one candy.
- Children with a higher rating get more candies than their neighbors.
What is the minimum candies you must give?
Example 1:
Example 2:
The solution in Java code
class Solution {
public int candy(int[] ratings) {
if (ratings.length==0)
return 0;
int n = ratings.length;
int[] arr = new int[n];
for (int i=0; i<n; i++) {
arr[i] = 1;
}
for (int i=1; i<n; i++) {
if (ratings[i] > ratings[i-1])
arr[i] = 1 + arr[i-1];
}
for (int i=n-2; i>=0; i--){
if (ratings[i] > ratings[i+1] && arr[i] <= arr[i+1])
arr[i] = 1 + arr[i+1];
}
int sum=0;
for (int i:arr) sum += i;
return sum;
}
}