Exercises

Easy (Greedy Basics)

• Assign Cookies Greedy idea: give the smallest cookie that satisfies the child.
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II Greedy: take every profitable increase.
• Can Place Flowers Greedy placement with local checks.
• Maximum Subarray Kadane’s algorithm (greedy + DP).
• Lemonade Change Greedy: always give largest bills first.

Medium (Classic Greedy Interview Problems)

• Jump Game Greedy: maintain farthest reachable index.
• Jump Game II Greedy BFS-style range expansion.
• Gas Station Greedy reset when total becomes negative.
• Partition Labels Greedy intervals based on last occurrences.
• Non-overlapping Intervals Classic interval scheduling greedy.

Hard (Advanced Greedy)

• Candy Two-pass greedy.
• Minimum Number of Arrows to Burst Balloons Greedy interval merging.
• Remove K Digits Greedy with monotonic stack.
• Task Scheduler Greedy counting strategy.
• Course Schedule III Greedy + heap.

The 5 Core Greedy Patterns These Problems Teach

Interval Scheduling

Examples:

• Non-overlapping Intervals
• Minimum Number of Arrows to Burst Balloons

Farthest Reach

Examples:

• Jump Game
• Jump Game II

Greedy Local Choice

Examples:

• Assign Cookies
• Lemonade Change

Greedy + Stack

Example:

• Remove K Digits

Greedy + Heap

Example:

• Course Schedule III