LeetCode 2335. Minimum Amount of Time to Fill Cups

See this article in my blog: https://dyingdown.github.io/2023/02/05/LeetCode-2335-Minimum-Amount-of-Time-to-Fill-Cups/

Problem Description

2335. Minimum Amount of Time to Fill Cups

Analysis

Denote the column value as a >= b >= c

From the above formula, we can get two situations:

1. a >= b + c

   In this situation, we can easily get that, first, use $b$ steps, then use $c$, steps, then use $a-b-c$ steps.

   So the total steps are $a$ steps.

2. a < b + c

   define $b:=c+x$, $a:=b+y=c+x+y$

   So the stones are [c+x+y, c+x, c]

   In order to achieve min steps, we should distribute the a properly to b and c.

   1. first, we use x steps to remove from the first two stones.

      Now the stones are [c+y, c, c]

      since a >= b >= c, so c+x+y < c+x + c => y < c

   2. if c+y is even

      define c+y = 2k because c+y is even.

      because y < c, so k < c

      so the stones are [2k, c, c]. So the steps are:

      • k steps for the first to stone, [k, c-k, c]
      • k steps for the first and third stone, [0, c-k, c-k]
      • c-k steps for the last two stones: [0, 0, 0]

      So in this case, the total steps are:
      $$\begin{gathered} x+k+k+c-k \\ =(b-c)+c+k \\ =b+k=b+\frac{c+y}{2}=b+\frac{c+a-b}{2} \\ =\frac{a+b+c}{2} \end{gathered}$$

   3. if c+y is even

      define c+y = 2k + 1, k < c

      so the stones are [2k + 1, c, c] and the steps are:

      • k steps for first two: [k + 1, c - k, c - k]
      • k steps for first and third stone : [1, c-k, c-k]
      • c - k steps for last two: [1, 0, 0]
      • 1 step for first stone

      So the total steps are:
      $$x+k+k+c-k+1=\frac{a+b+c}{2}+1=ceil(\frac{a+b+c}{2})$$

Code

class Solution {
public:
    int fillCups(vector<int>& amount) {
        int sum = 0;
        int maxN = 0;
        for(int i : amount) {
            sum += i;
            maxN = max(maxN, i);
        }
        return max((sum + 1) / 2, maxN);
    }
};