leetcode Nim Game

292.Nim Game

You are playing the following Nim Game with your friend: There is a heap of stones on the table, each time one of you take turns to remove 1 to 3 stones. The one who removes the last stone will be the winner. You will take the first turn to remove the stones.

Both of you are very clever and have optimal strategies for the game. Write a function to determine whether you can win the game given the number of stones in the heap.

For example, if there are 4 stones in the heap, then you will never win the game: no matter 1, 2, or 3 stones you remove, the last stone will always be removed by your friend

思路：

简单说就是，4是一个死亡数字，谁手里剩下4个，谁就死。当石头为5,6,7的时候，可以让对方直接拿到4个，那对方必死，自己必胜。所以，5,6,7是必胜数字。当石头是8个的时候，总会剩下5，6,7个石头总是留给别人，所以自己必死。由此类推归纳，4n是必死的。

Proof:

1. the base case: when n = 4, as suggested by the hint from the
   problem, no matter which number that that first player, the second
   player would always be able to pick the remaining number.

2. For 1* 4 < n < 2 * 4, (n = 5, 6, 7), the first player can reduce the
   initial number into 4 accordingly, which will leave the death number
   4 to the second player. i.e. The numbers 5, 6, 7 are winning numbers for any player who got it first.

3. Now to the beginning of the next cycle, n = 8, no matter which
   number that the first player picks, it would always leave the
   winning numbers (5, 6, 7) to the second player. Therefore, 8 % 4 ==
   0, again is a death number.

4. Following the second case, for numbers between (2*4 = 8) and
   (3*4=12), which are 9, 10, 11, are winning numbers for the first
   player again, because the first player can always reduce the number
   into the death number 8.

Following the above theorem and proof, the solution could not be simpler:

public boolean canWinNim(int n) {    
    return n % 4 != 0 ;
}