#1753
Maximum Score From Removing Stones
pupil · 585 · lc medium +29 · verified · 68.6% accepted · 987 likes · top 76%
Description
You are playing a game with three stone piles a, b, and c. Each turn remove one stone from two distinct non-empty piles and gain 1 point. The game ends when fewer than two piles are non-empty. Return the maximum score.
Example 1:
Input: a = 2, b = 4, c = 6
Output: 6
Explanation: The starting state is (2, 4, 6). One optimal set of moves is:
- Take from 1st and 3rd piles, state is now (1, 4, 5)
- Take from 1st and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 4, 4)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 3, 3)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 2, 2)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 1, 1)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 0, 0)
There are fewer than two non-empty piles, so the game ends. Total: 6 points.
Example 2:
Input: a = 4, b = 4, c = 6
Output: 7
Explanation: The starting state is (4, 4, 6). One optimal set of moves is:
- Take from 1st and 2nd piles, state is now (3, 3, 6)
- Take from 1st and 3rd piles, state is now (2, 3, 5)
- Take from 1st and 3rd piles, state is now (1, 3, 4)
- Take from 1st and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 3, 3)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 2, 2)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 1, 1)
- Take from 2nd and 3rd piles, state is now (0, 0, 0)
There are fewer than two non-empty piles, so the game ends. Total: 7 points.
Example 3:
Input: a = 1, b = 8, c = 8
Output: 8
Explanation: One optimal set of moves is to take from the 2nd and 3rd piles for 8 turns until they are empty.
After that, there are fewer than two non-empty piles, so the game ends.
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