CodingMediumcod-g276

Subject Game theoryLevel Mid–Senior~30 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

Players alternate taking a coin from either end of the array coins; player one moves first. Return True if player one can end with a total >= player two's total under optimal play by both (ties count as a win for player one). 1 <= len(coins) <= 200, 0 <= coins[i] <= 10^6.

Implement

first_player_can_tie(coins: list[int]) → bool

Examples

in[[1,5,2]]outfalse

What a strong answer looks like

State 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.

Learn the concepts

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.

Run or narrate your approach, then ask the coach.