Search⌘ K
AI Features
Home
Courses
Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns

The Number of the Smallest Unoccupied Chair

Explore how to solve the problem of assigning the smallest unoccupied chair to friends at a party based on their arrival and leaving times. Understand how heaps can be used to efficiently track chair availability and implement a coding solution that handles dynamic seating assignments.

We'll cover the following...

Statement

At a party, nn friends, numbered from 00 to n−1n - 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 00, ...