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
Several cards are arranged in a row, with each card having an associated number of points. In one step, you must pick one card from the beginning or end of the row. Given the integer array `cardPoints` and integer `k`, return the maximum score you can obtain after taking exactly `k` cards.
Example
cardPoints = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1], k = 3 → 12
Constraints
1 ≤ cardPoints.length ≤ 10⁵ · 1 ≤ cardPoints[i] ≤ 10⁴ · 1 ≤ k ≤ cardPoints.length
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