Greedy Algorithms

How Do You Prove a Greedy Algorithm is Correct?

Greedy algorithm correctness is typically proven with the exchange argument (show any optimal solution can be transformed into the greedy solution without losi…

Jump Game Problem: How Do You Solve It?

The jump game problem — determining if you can reach the last index of an array where each element is the maximum jump length from that position — is best solv…

What is the Container With Most Water Problem?

The container with most water problem finds two vertical lines from an array of heights that, together with the x-axis, form the container holding the most wat…

What is the Interval Scheduling Problem?

The interval scheduling problem asks for the maximum number of non-overlapping intervals you can select from a set, and it is solved optimally with a greedy st…

What is the Activity Selection Problem?

The activity selection problem is the classic greedy exercise of choosing the maximum number of non-conflicting activities from a set given each activity's sta…

What is the Huffman Coding Algorithm?

Huffman coding is a greedy algorithm that builds an optimal prefix-free binary code by repeatedly merging the two least-frequent symbols into a new tree node,…

What is Job Sequencing with Deadlines?

Job sequencing with deadlines is a greedy scheduling problem where each job has a profit and a deadline, only one job can run per time slot, and the goal is to…

What is the Fractional Knapsack Problem?

The fractional knapsack problem asks you to fill a capacity-limited knapsack with items that can be broken into fractions, maximizing total value by always tak…

How Does Greedy Choice Relate to Optimal Substructure?

A greedy algorithm only produces a globally optimal solution when a problem has both the greedy-choice property — a locally optimal choice at each step leads t…