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Solution: The Number of the Smallest Unoccupied Chair

Explore how to solve the problem of assigning the smallest available chair to arriving friends using min heaps. Learn to efficiently manage occupied and free chairs by sorting arrivals and using two priority queues. This lesson helps you implement a time-efficient solution with O(n log n) complexity, essential for handling dynamic scheduling problems in coding interviews.

Statement

At a party, nn friends, numbered from 00 to n1n - 1, arrive and leave at different times. There are infinitely many chairs, numbered 00 onwards. Each arriving friend sits on the smallest available chair at that moment.

For example, if chairs ...