- Difficulty: Medium
- Tags: LeetCode, Medium, Recursion, Array, Math, Dynamic Programming, Game Theory, leetcode-486, O(n^2), O(n)
Problem
You are given an integer array nums
. Two players are playing a game with this array: player 1 and player 2.
Player 1 and player 2 take turns, with player 1 starting first. Both players start the game with a score of 0
. At each turn, the player takes one of the numbers from either end of the array (i.e., nums[0]
or nums[nums.length - 1]
) which reduces the size of the array by 1
. The player adds the chosen number to their score. The game ends when there are no more elements in the array.
Return true
if Player 1 can win the game. If the scores of both players are equal, then player 1 is still the winner, and you should also return true
. You may assume that both players are playing optimally.
Example 1:
Input: nums = [1,5,2] Output: false Explanation: Initially, player 1 can choose between 1 and 2. If he chooses 2 (or 1), then player 2 can choose from 1 (or 2) and 5. If player 2 chooses 5, then player 1 will be left with 1 (or 2). So, final score of player 1 is 1 + 2 = 3, and player 2 is 5. Hence, player 1 will never be the winner and you need to return false.
Example 2:
Input: nums = [1,5,233,7] Output: true Explanation: Player 1 first chooses 1. Then player 2 has to choose between 5 and 7. No matter which number player 2 choose, player 1 can choose 233. Finally, player 1 has more score (234) than player 2 (12), so you need to return True representing player1 can win.
Constraints:
1 <= nums.length <= 20
0 <= nums[i] <= 107