Coin picking game
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]) → intExamples
in
[[1,5,2]]out-2What 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.
0:00 of about 30 min
solution.py
InputExpectedGot
[[1,5,2]]-2not run yetsample