Problem Statment

You are given ratings array of integers where ratings[i] is rating value assigned to the i^th child. You are giving candies to these n children who are standing in single row.

Follow below rules to give candies to each child:

• Each child must have at least one candy.
• Children with a higher rating get more candies than their neighbors.

Return the minimum count of candies you require to distribute candies to the children.

Examples

• Example 1:

  • Input: ratings = [4, 2, 3, 4]
  • Expected Output: 8
  • Justification: The second child gets 1 candy (lowest rating), the third gets 2 candies (higher than the second), the first gets 2 (higher than the second but equal to the third), and the fourth gets 3 (highest rating).

• Example 2:

  • Input: ratings = [1, 1, 1]
  • Expected Output: 3
  • Justification: All children have the same rating, so each gets 1 candy to satisfy the minimum requirement.

• Example 3:

  • Input: ratings = [2, 4, 2, 6, 1, 7, 8]
  • Expected Output: 12
  • Justification: We can give candies to each child as given in [1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3], totaling 12 candies.

Try it yourself

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