How should I practice Stone Game III?

Start by reading the full statement, solve the visible examples, then compare the pattern against related Google phone screen problems in FastPrep.

Is Stone Game III associated with Google?

FastPrep tags this as a Google phone screen coding practice problem when the problem catalog has that company and stage context.

Stone Game III

Google● HardFULLTIMEPHONE SCREEN

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Problem statement

Alice and Bob play a game using the integer array stoneValue. Alice moves first. On each turn, a player removes the first 1, 2, or 3 remaining stones and adds their values to that player's score. Play continues until no stones remain.

Both players choose moves that maximize their own final score. Return "Alice" if Alice's score is greater, "Bob" if Bob's score is greater, or "Tie" if the scores are equal.

Function

stoneGameIII(stoneValue: int[]) → String

Examples

Example 1

stoneValue = [1,2,3,7]return = "Bob"

No matter whether Alice takes one, two, or three stones, Bob can take the remaining high-value group and finish with the larger score.

Example 2

stoneValue = [1,2,3,-9]return = "Alice"

Alice can take the first three stones for 6, leaving -9 for Bob.

Example 3

stoneValue = [1,2,3,6]return = "Tie"

With optimal play, Alice takes the first three stones for 6 and Bob takes the final stone worth 6.

Constraints

1 <= stoneValue.length <= 50000.
-1000 <= stoneValue[i] <= 1000.