Best Team With No Conflicts Solution in Java

Ah, the classic dilemma of assembling a team without conflicts! It’s like trying to organize a family reunion where Uncle Bob and Aunt Karen are both invited, but we all know they can’t be in the same room without a verbal brawl. In the world of coding, this problem is known as the “Best Team With No Conflicts.” The goal? To select a team of players such that no two players have conflicting scores based on their ages.

Imagine you’re the coach of a sports team, and you have a bunch of players with different ages and scores. You want to pick the best team possible, but you can’t have players who are too competitive with each other. So, how do you do it? Let’s dive into the code solution!

Quick Links

C++ Solution
Python Solution

Java Code Solution


class Solution {
  public int bestTeamScore(int[] scores, int[] ages) {
    record Player(int age, int score) {}
    final int n = scores.length;
    Player[] players = new Player[n];
    int[] dp = new int[n];

    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
      players[i] = new Player(ages[i], scores[i]);

    Arrays.sort(players,
                (a, b) -> a.age == b.age ? Integer.compare(b.score, a.score)
                                          : Integer.compare(b.age, a.age));

    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
      dp[i] = players[i].score;
      for (int j = 0; j < i; ++j)
        if (players[j].score >= players[i].score)
          dp[i] = Math.max(dp[i], dp[j] + players[i].score);
    }

    return Arrays.stream(dp).max().getAsInt();
  }
}

Approach Explanation

The code uses a dynamic programming approach to solve the problem. It first creates a Player record to hold the age and score of each player. Then, it sorts the players based on their ages (and scores in case of ties). The dynamic programming array dp is used to keep track of the maximum score achievable by including each player. For each player, it checks all previously considered players to see if they can be included in the team without conflicts.

Time and Space Complexity

Complexity Type	Complexity
Time Complexity	O(n²)
Space Complexity	O(n)

Real-World Example

Think of it like a group project in school. You want to pick the best students, but you can’t have the overachiever and the slacker on the same team, or else it’ll be chaos! You want to maximize the overall grade of the project while ensuring that the team members can work together harmoniously. This problem is a mathematical representation of that scenario.