Distribute Money to Maximum Children - Problem
You're organizing a charity event where you need to distribute money to children! 🎁
Given money dollars and children recipients, you must follow these strict rules:
- All money must be distributed - no leftovers allowed!
- Everyone gets at least $1 - no child goes empty-handed
- Nobody gets exactly $4 - it's considered unlucky!
Your goal is to maximize the number of children who receive exactly $8 (the lucky amount!). If it's impossible to distribute the money following these rules, return -1.
Example: With $20 and 3 children, you could give [$8, $8, $4] but that violates the "no $4" rule. Instead, give [$8, $7, $5] to maximize children with $8.
Input & Output
example_1.py — Basic case
$
Input:
money = 20, children = 3
›
Output:
1
💡 Note:
Give [8, 7, 5]. Only 1 child gets exactly $8. We can't give [8, 8, 4] because $4 is forbidden.
example_2.py — Perfect distribution
$
Input:
money = 16, children = 2
›
Output:
2
💡 Note:
Give [8, 8]. Both children get exactly $8, which is the maximum possible.
example_3.py — Impossible case
$
Input:
money = 2, children = 3
›
Output:
-1
💡 Note:
We need at least $3 to give each child $1, but we only have $2. Impossible to distribute.
Constraints
- 1 ≤ money ≤ 200
- 1 ≤ children ≤ 30
- All money must be distributed
- Each child must receive at least $1
- No child can receive exactly $4
Visualization
Tap to expand
Understanding the Visualization
1
Safety First
Give everyone $1 first to ensure no one is left out
2
Maximize Happiness
Upgrade as many $1 gifts to $8 gifts as possible
3
Handle Conflicts
Avoid giving anyone the unlucky $4 amount
4
Perfect Balance
Ensure all money is distributed according to rules
Key Takeaway
🎯 Key Insight: Instead of exploring all possible distributions, we can solve this mathematically in O(1) time by greedily maximizing $8 distributions while handling the constraint conflicts!
💡
Explanation
AI Ready
💡 Suggestion
Tab
to accept
Esc
to dismiss
// Output will appear here after running code