Google Interview: Arrangement of Blocks

Question

You are given N blocks of height 1…N. In how many ways can you arrange these blocks in a row such that when viewed from left you see only L blocks (rest are hidden by taller

Answer 1

well, just as an empirical solution for small N:

blocks.py:

import itertools
from collections import defaultdict

def countPermutation(p):
    n = 0
    max = 0
    for block in p:
        if block > max:
            n += 1
            max = block
    return n

def countBlocks(n):
    count = defaultdict(int)
    for p in itertools.permutations(range(1,n+1)):
        fwd = countPermutation(p)
        rev = countPermutation(reversed(p))
        count[(fwd,rev)] += 1
    return count

def printCount(count, n, places):
    for i in range(1,n+1):
        for j in range(1,n+1):
            c = count[(i,j)]
            if c > 0:
                print "%*d" % (places, count[(i,j)]),
            else:
                print " " * places ,
        print

def countAndPrint(nmax, places):
    for n in range(1,nmax+1):
        printCount(countBlocks(n), n, places)
        print

and sample output:

blocks.countAndPrint(10)
     1

            1
     1

            1      1
     1      2
     1

            2      3      1
     2      6      3
     3      3
     1

            6     11      6      1
     6     22     18      4
    11     18      6
     6      4
     1

           24     50     35     10      1
    24    100    105     40      5
    50    105     60     10
    35     40     10
    10      5
     1

          120    274    225     85     15      1
   120    548    675    340     75      6
   274    675    510    150     15
   225    340    150     20
    85     75     15
    15      6
     1

          720   1764   1624    735    175     21      1
   720   3528   4872   2940    875    126      7
  1764   4872   4410   1750    315     21
  1624   2940   1750    420     35
   735    875    315     35
   175    126     21
    21      7
     1

         5040  13068  13132   6769   1960    322     28      1
  5040  26136  39396  27076   9800   1932    196      8
 13068  39396  40614  19600   4830    588     28
 13132  27076  19600   6440    980     56
  6769   9800   4830    980     70
  1960   1932    588     56
   322    196     28
    28      8
     1

        40320 109584 118124  67284  22449   4536    546     36      1
 40320 219168 354372 269136 112245  27216   3822    288      9
109584 354372 403704 224490  68040  11466   1008     36
118124 269136 224490  90720  19110   2016     84
 67284 112245  68040  19110   2520    126
 22449  27216  11466   2016    126
  4536   3822   1008     84
   546    288     36
    36      9
     1

You'll note a few obvious (well, mostly obvious) things from the problem statement:

• the total # of permutations is always N!
• with the exception of N=1, there is no solution for L,R = (1,1): if a count in one direction is 1, then it implies the tallest block is on that end of the stack, so the count in the other direction has to be >= 2
• the situation is symmetric (reverse each permutation and you reverse the L,R count)
• if p is a permutation of N-1 blocks and has count (Lp,Rp), then the N permutations of block N inserted in each possible spot can have a count ranging from L = 1 to Lp+1, and R = 1 to Rp + 1.

From the empirical output:

• the leftmost column or topmost row (where L = 1 or R = 1) with N blocks is the sum of the rows/columns with N-1 blocks: i.e. in @PengOne's notation,

  b(N,1,R) = sum(b(N-1,k,R-1) for k = 1 to N-R+1

• Each diagonal is a row of Pascal's triangle, times a constant factor K for that diagonal -- I can't prove this, but I'm sure someone can -- i.e.:

  b(N,L,R) = K * (L+R-2 choose L-1) where K = b(N,1,L+R-1)

So the computational complexity of computing b(N,L,R) is the same as the computational complexity of computing b(N,1,L+R-1) which is the first column (or row) in each triangle.

This observation is probably 95% of the way towards an explicit solution (the other 5% I'm sure involves standard combinatoric identities, I'm not too familiar with those).

---

A quick check with the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences shows that b(N,1,R) appears to be OEIS sequence A094638:

A094638 Triangle read by rows: T(n,k) =|s(n,n+1-k)|, where s(n,k) are the signed Stirling numbers of the first kind (1<=k<=n; in other words, the unsigned Stirling numbers of the first kind in reverse order). 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, 6, 11, 6, 1, 10, 35, 50, 24, 1, 15, 85, 225, 274, 120, 1, 21, 175, 735, 1624, 1764, 720, 1, 28, 322, 1960, 6769, 13132, 13068, 5040, 1, 36, 546, 4536, 22449, 67284, 118124, 109584, 40320, 1, 45, 870, 9450, 63273, 269325, 723680, 1172700

As far as how to efficiently compute the Stirling numbers of the first kind, I'm not sure; Wikipedia gives an explicit formula but it looks like a nasty sum. This question (computing Stirling #s of the first kind) shows up on MathOverflow and it looks like O(n^2), as PengOne hypothesizes.