Question
A conference publishes its single-track schedule as talks[i] = [start, end] in minutes; a talk occupies the half-open span [start, end), so you can walk straight from a talk into one that begins exactly as it ends. You never leave a talk partway through. Return the maximum number of talks you can attend in full. Example: talks [[9,10],[9,11],[10,12]] gives 2.
max_talks(talks: list[list[int]]) → int[[[9,10],[9,11],[10,12]]]out2State your approach and its time/space complexity out loud before you optimize. Handle the edge cases (empty input, duplicates, overflow), and say why you chose this over the brute force. Green tests are the floor, not the grade.
Vibe coding: describe the solution in plain language (or narrate it) and the coach grades your approach. Generating runnable code from your description is coming next.