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Solution: Collect Coins in Minimum Steps

Explore how to apply divide and conquer techniques to efficiently solve the minimum steps required to collect all coins in stacks. Understand the recursive method and analyze the approach's time complexity to improve proficiency in algorithm design and problem-solving.

Solution

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Java
class CollectCoins {
// Utility method, called recursively to collect coins from `l` to `r` using the height array assuming that h height has already been collected
public static int minimumStepsUtil(int left, int right, int h, int height[]) {
if (left >= right) // base case: all coins already collected
return 0;
int min = left;
for (int i = left; i < right; i++) // finding minimum height index
{
if (height[i] < height[min])
min = i;
}
return Math.min(right - left, minimumStepsUtil(left, min, height[min], height) +
minimumStepsUtil(min + 1, right, height[min], height) + height[min] - h);
}
// calls the recursive utility function and returns the minimum number of steps using height array
public static int minimumSteps(int height[], int N) {
return minimumStepsUtil(0, N, 0, height);
}
// driver program to test the above functions
public static void main(String args[]) {
int[][] inputs = {{3, 1, 1, 5, 1},{ 4, 2, 1, 5, 2 }}; // you can always play around with these input values to see changing outputs
for (int i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++) {
System.out.println("Min Steps for " + Arrays.toString(inputs[i]) + " ---> " + minimumSteps(inputs[i], inputs[i].length));
}
}
}

Explanation

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