How to Solve Minimum Number of Food Buckets to Feed the Hamsters Leetcode Problem - Interview Coder Guide
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How to Solve Minimum Number of Food Buckets to Feed the Hamsters Problem

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Medium#2191
LeetCode Problem

Minimum Number of Food Buckets to Feed the Hamsters

You are given a 0-indexed string hamsters where hamsters[i] is either: 'H' indicating that there is a hamster at index i, or '.' indicating that index i is empty. You will add some number of food buck...

StringDynamic ProgrammingGreedy

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Problem Breakdown

Understanding the Minimum Number of Food Buckets to Feed the Hamsters Problem

Let's break down this LeetCode problem and understand what makes it challenging in interview settings.

Problem Statement

You are given a 0-indexed string hamsters where hamsters[i] is either: 'H' indicating that there is a hamster at index i, or '.' indicating that index i is empty. You will add some number of food buckets at the empty indices in order to feed the hamsters. A hamster can be fed if there is at least one food bucket to its left or to its right. More formally, a hamster at index i can be fed if you place a food bucket at index i - 1 and/or at index i + 1. Return the minimum number of food buckets you should place at empty indices to feed all the hamsters or -1 if it is impossible to feed all of them.

MediumProblem #2191
LeetCode

Minimum Number of Food Buckets to Feed the Hamsters

Related Topics
StringDynamic ProgrammingGreedy
How Interview Coder Helps

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Examples

Example 1
INPUT
hamsters = "H..H"
OUTPUT
2
EXPLANATION

We place two food buckets at indices 1 and 2. It can be shown that if we place only one food bucket, one of the hamsters will not be fed.

Example 2
INPUT
hamsters = ".H.H."
OUTPUT
1
EXPLANATION

We place one food bucket at index 2.

Example 3
INPUT
hamsters = ".HHH."
OUTPUT
-1
EXPLANATION

If we place a food bucket at every empty index as shown, the hamster at index 2 will not be able to eat.

Constraints

1 <= hamsters.length <= 105
hamsters[i] is either'H' or '.'.

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