Maximum Sum of 3 Non-Overlapping Subarrays [Hard] — Sliding Window + DP
Master LeetCode 689 with a full visual dry run, left/right DP insight, Python and JavaScript solutions, and real interview follow-ups on generalizing to k windows.
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Master LeetCode 689 with a full visual dry run, left/right DP insight, Python and JavaScript solutions, and real interview follow-ups on generalizing to k windows.
Master LC 871 with two complementary strategies: a greedy max-heap that asks "which station gives me the most fuel when I am stuck?" in O(n log n), and a DP table that asks "what is the farthest I can reach with exactly k stops?" in O(n²). Both are asked at Amazon and Google. Learn the intuition, see a full dry run, and understand when each approach fits.
Master LeetCode 1493 with an intuition-first sliding window approach. Learn why you subtract 1 from the window size, trace through a real dry run, and ace every follow-up question an interviewer throws at you.
LeetCode 149 asks you to find the maximum number of collinear points on a 2D plane. The trick is representing slope as a GCD-reduced integer fraction — no floats, no precision bugs — and using a HashMap to count how many points share the same slope relative to each anchor. This post covers the full intuition, a step-by-step visual dry run, every edge case (vertical lines, duplicates, sign normalization), well-commented Python and JavaScript solutions, and the real FAANG follow-up questions that separate good candidates from great ones.
LeetCode 32 is one of the most deceptive Hard problems on the platform — the brute-force is obvious, but all three optimal solutions require genuinely different mental models. Master the index-sentinel stack, the DP recurrence, and the two-pass counter sweep, and you will be able to answer any follow-up a FAANG interviewer throws at you.