1690. Stone Game VII (prefixSum and dp)

because we always need to query the interval sum. So, we make this operation to become O(1) using prefixSum.

[1, 2, 3, 4]

 ^   ^

 i    i+1

if we pick up the left stone, dp[i + 1][j], if we pick up the right stone, dp[i][j - 1].

as both players would maximize the difference. so.

class Solution {
public:
    int stoneGameVII(vector<int>& stones) {
        int n = stones.size();
        vector<vector<int>> dp(n, vector<int>(n, 0));
        vector<int> prefixSum(n + 1, 0);
        prefixSum[1] = stones[0];
        for(int i = 2; i <= n; i++){
            prefixSum[i] = prefixSum[i - 1] + stones[i - 1];
        }
        for(int i = n - 1; i >= 0; i--){
            for(int j = i + 1; j < n; j++){
                dp[i][j] = max(prefixSum[j + 1] - prefixSum[i + 1] - dp[i + 1][j],
                              prefixSum[j] - prefixSum[i] - dp[i][j - 1]);
            }
        }
        return dp[0][n - 1];
    }
};