Section 1Understand Problem
Section 01
Understand the problem
Restate the problem precisely. Interviewers reward candidates who pause, define the contract, and name the guarantees before coding.
Problem statement
There are `n` children standing in a line. Each child is assigned a rating value given in the integer array `ratings`. You are giving candies to these children subjected to the following requirements: each child must have at least one candy, and children with a higher rating get more candies than their neighbors. Return the minimum number of candies you need to have to distribute the candies to the children.
Example
ratings = [1,0,2] → 5
Constraints
n == ratings.length · 1 ≤ n ≤ 2 · 10⁴ · 0 ≤ ratings[i] ≤ 2 · 10⁴
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