Solving the "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies" Problem
Published: 2023-09-20 15:07:09

_ Solving the "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies" Problem_

LeetCode is a popular platform for practicing coding and algorithmic problem-solving. One such problem is "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies." In this article, we'll walk through a JavaScript solution to this problem step by step. The problem statement is as follows:

**Problem Statement:**
Given an array `candies` representing the number of candies each kid has and an integer `extraCandies`, where `extraCandies` represents the extra candies that you have, you need to determine if there is a way to distribute the extra candies to the kids such that they can have the greatest number of candies among all the kids.

Let's dive into the solution.

**Understanding the Problem**

Before we start coding, it's essential to understand the problem thoroughly. We have an array `candies` containing the number of candies each child has, and we want to determine if each child can have the greatest number of candies among all the children by adding some extra candies (given by `extraCandies`).

 **Approach**

The solution consists of two main steps:

1. Find the maximum number of candies among all the children in the `candies` array.
2. For each child, check if adding `extraCandies` to their current candies would make them have the greatest number of candies.

Let's break down these steps and implement the solution.

**Step 1**: Find the Maximum Number of Candies

```javascript
let maxCandies = 0;

for (let i = 0; i < candies.length; i++) {
  if (candies[i] > maxCandies) {
    maxCandies = candies[i];
  }
}
```

In this step, we initialize a variable `maxCandies` to 0. We then iterate through the `candies` array and update `maxCandies` if we find a value greater than the current maximum.

**Step 2**: Check for Greatest Number of Candies

```javascript
let result = [];

for (let i = 0; i < candies.length; i++) {
  if (candies[i] + extraCandies >= maxCandies) {
    result.push(true);
  } else {
    result.push(false);
  }
}
```

In this step, we initialize an empty array `result` to store the result for each child. We iterate through the `candies` array again and compare each child's candies with the sum of their candies and `extraCandies`. If the sum is greater than or equal to `maxCandies`, we push `true` to `result`, indicating that the child can have the greatest number of candies. Otherwise, we push `false`.

**Final Output**

The `result` array contains `true` or `false` for each child, indicating whether they can have the greatest number of candies by adding `extraCandies`.

**Conclusion**

In this article, we discussed how to solve the "Kids With the Greatest Number of Candies" problem on LeetCode. We used a straightforward approach that involved finding the maximum number of candies and then comparing each child's candies with the maximum after adding `extraCandies`. This solution efficiently determines which children can have the greatest number of candies. It's essential to understand the problem statement and break it down into smaller steps, as we did in this walkthrough, to arrive at an optimal solution. Happy coding!

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