CodingHardcod-g762

Subject Dynamic programming 2dLevel Senior–Staff~40 minCommon in Algorithms & data structures interviewsIndustries Software development

Question

Two players play optimally with a row of stone piles of given positive values. On each turn a player takes the entire pile from either the left or right end. Each player tries to maximize their own total. Return the first player's score minus the second player's score under optimal play. Constraints: 1 <= n <= 500, 1 <= pile <= 1000.

Implement

stone_game_diff(piles: list[int]) → int

Examples

in[[5,3,4,5]]out1

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.