Solving the "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies" Problem

LeetCode is a popular platform for practicing coding and algorithmic problem-solving. One such problem is "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies." In this article, we'll walk through a JavaScript solution to this problem step by step. The problem statement is as follows:

Problem Statement: Given an array candies representing the number of candies each kid has and an integer extraCandies, where extraCandies represents the extra candies that you have, you need to determine if there is a way to distribute the extra candies to the kids such that they can have the greatest number of candies among all the kids.

Let's dive into the solution.

Understanding the Problem

Before we start coding, it's essential to understand the problem thoroughly. We have an array candies containing the number of candies each child has, and we want to determine if each child can have the greatest number of candies among all the children by adding some extra candies (given by extraCandies).

Approach

The solution consists of two main steps:

1. Find the maximum number of candies among all the children in the candies array.

2. For each child, check if adding extraCandies to their current candies would make them have the greatest number of candies.

Let's break down these steps and implement the solution.

Step 1: Find the Maximum Number of Candies

let maxCandies = 0;

for (let i = 0; i < candies.length; i++) {
  if (candies[i] > maxCandies) {
    maxCandies = candies[i];
  }
}

In this step, we initialize a variable maxCandies to 0. We then iterate through the candies array and update maxCandies if we find a value greater than the current maximum.

Step 2: Check for Greatest Number of Candies

let result = [];

for (let i = 0; i < candies.length; i++) {
  if (candies[i] + extraCandies >= maxCandies) {
    result.push(true);
  } else {
    result.push(false);
  }
}

In this step, we initialize an empty array result to store the result for each child. We iterate through the candies array again and compare each child's candies with the sum of their candies and extraCandies. If the sum is greater than or equal to maxCandies, we push true to result, indicating that the child can have the greatest number of candies. Otherwise, we push false.

Final Output

The result array contains true or false for each child, indicating whether they can have the greatest number of candies by adding extraCandies.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed how to solve the "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies" problem on LeetCode. We used a straightforward approach that involved finding the maximum number of candies and then comparing each child's candies with the maximum after adding extraCandies. This solution efficiently determines which children can have the greatest number of candies. It's essential to understand the problem statement and break it down into smaller steps, as we did in this walkthrough, to arrive at an optimal solution. Happy coding!