CodingHardcod-g480

Subject Dp on intervalsLevel Senior–Staff~35 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

You have `stones` piles in a row. Repeatedly merge two ADJACENT piles into one; the cost of a merge is the sum of the two piles' sizes. Keep merging until a single pile remains. Return the minimum possible total merge cost. A single pile (or empty) costs 0.

Implement

min_merge_cost(stones: list[int]) → int

Examples

in[[4,3,3,4]]out28

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.