CodingHardcod-g724

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

Question

Two players take turns picking stones from EITHER end of a row (values given in an array). Each player plays optimally to maximize their own total. Return the first player's score minus the second player's score under optimal play (can be negative). Constraints: 1 <= length <= 1000, -10000 <= each value <= 10000.

Implement

optimal_score_diff(nums: 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.