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
Given an integer `n`, return the *least number of perfect square numbers* that sum to `n`. A perfect square is an integer that is the square of an integer; in other words, it is the product of some integer with itself.
Example
n = 12 → 3
Constraints
1 ≤ n ≤ 10⁴
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