Minimum Fountains Activation Problem

In this problem, you have a one-dimensional garden of length 'N'. Each position from 0 to 'N' has a fountain that can provide water to the garden up to a certain range. Thus, there are 'N' + 1 fountains at positions 0, 1, 2, ..., N.

You are provided with an integer 'N' and an array 'ARR' of size 'N' + 1. Each element in the array denotes the range of coverage of a fountain at the corresponding position.

Your task is to determine the minimum number of fountains that need to be activated to ensure that the entire garden from position 0 to 'N' is watered.

Example:

Input:
T = 1
N = 5
ARR = [1, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]
Output:
1
Explanation:

One optimal way is to activate the fountain at position 1, which covers the entire garden from 0 to 5.

Constraints:

  • 1 <= 'T' <= 50
  • 1 <= 'N' <= 104
  • 1 <= 'ARR'[i] <= 'N'
Note:
  • Use 0-based indexing for the array.
  • Ignore coverage beyond the garden limits 0 and 'N'.
  • If a fountain covers from position 'A' to 'B', the water reaches the entire segment from 'A' to 'B'.
AnswerBot
4mo

Find the minimum number of fountains to activate to water the entire garden.

  • Iterate through the array to find the coverage of each fountain.

  • Keep track of the farthest coverage reached by each activate...read more

Help your peers!
Select
Add answer anonymously...

Paytm Software Developer interview questions & answers

A Software Developer was asked 3mo agoQ. Given a sorted array of integers nums and an integer target, write a function to...read more
A Software Developer was asked 7mo agoQ. Given a 2D grid map of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of islands...read more
A Software Developer was asked 8mo agoQ. Given a binary tree, return the vertical order traversal of its nodes' values. (...read more

Popular interview questions of Software Developer

A Software Developer was asked 7mo agoQ1. Given a 2D grid map of '1's (land) and '0's (water), count the number of islands...read more
A Software Developer was asked 8mo agoQ2. Given a binary tree, return the vertical order traversal of its nodes' values. (...read more
A Software Developer was asked 9mo agoQ3. Given a graph and a source node, find the shortest path from the source to all o...read more
Paytm Software Developer Interview Questions
Stay ahead in your career. Get AmbitionBox app
play-icon
play-icon
qr-code
Trusted by over 1.5 Crore job seekers to find their right fit company
80 L+

Reviews

10L+

Interviews

4 Cr+

Salaries

1.5 Cr+

Users

Contribute to help millions

Made with ❤️ in India. Trademarks belong to their respective owners. All rights reserved © 2025 Info Edge (India) Ltd.

Follow Us
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Profile Image
Hello, Guest
AmbitionBox Employee Choice Awards 2025
Winners announced!
awards-icon
Contribute to help millions!
Write a review
Write a review
Share interview
Share interview
Contribute salary
Contribute salary
Add office photos
Add office photos
Add office benefits
Add office benefits