This problem can be solved using a greedy algorithm. Here are the steps: 1. Initialize an array `gifts` of size `N` (number of employees) with all elements as 1. This is because each employee must receive at least one gift. 2. Traverse the rank array from left to right. If the current employee's rank is greater than the previous employee's rank, then the current employee gets one more gift than the previous employee. 3. Traverse the rank array from right to left. If the current employee's rank is greater than the next employee's rank and the current employee has less or equal gifts than the next employee, then the current employee gets one more gift than the next employee. 4. The minimum number of gifts required by the company is the sum of all elements in the `gifts` array. Here is a Python code snippet that implements the above steps: ```python def min_gifts(rank, N): gifts = [1]*N for i in range(1, N): if rank[i] rank[i-1]: gifts[i] = gifts[i-1] + 1 for i in range(N-2, -1, -1): if rank[i] rank[i+1] and gifts[i]

Question

This problem can be solved using a greedy algorithm. Here are the steps:

1. Initialize an array `gifts` of size `N` (number of employees) with all elements as 1. This is because each employee must receive at least one gift.

2. Traverse the rank array from left to right. If the current employee's rank is greater than the previous employee's rank, then the current employee gets one more gift than the previous employee.

3. Traverse the rank array from right to left. If the current employee's rank is greater than the next employee's rank and the current employee has less or equal gifts than the next employee, then the current employee gets one more gift than the next employee.

4. The minimum number of gifts required by the company is the sum of all elements in the `gifts` array.

Here is a Python code snippet that implements the above steps:

```python
def min_gifts(rank, N):
    gifts = [1]*N
    for i in range(1, N):
        if rank[i] > rank[i-1]:
            gifts[i] = gifts[i-1] + 1
    for i in range(N-2, -1, -1):
        if rank[i] > rank[i+1] and gifts[i] <= gifts[i+1]:
            gifts[i] = gifts[i+1] + 1
    return sum(gifts)
```

In the given example, for the first test case, the rank array is [1, 2, 1, 5, 2]. The `gifts` array after the first traversal is [1, 2, 1, 2, 1] and after the second traversal is [1, 2, 1

Knowee AI · Accepted Answer