CodingHardcod-g488

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

Question

Given a row of coin values `a`, two players alternate taking a coin from EITHER end of the remaining row, each maximizing their own total. Return the score difference (first player's total minus second player's total) under optimal play. The result may be negative.

Implement

optimal_pick_ends_diff(a: list[int]) → int

Examples

in[[1,5,2]]out-2

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.