What is a hint for USACO problem Milking Cows in section 1.2?

First thing to do would be to sort the data with respect to the starting time if they are equal compare their finishing times. For Longest milking time ,A simple approach would be for given [a,b][c,d][e,f][g,h][i,j][j,k].Take two vars:head and tai... read more

Milking Cows Three farmers rise at 5 am each morning and head for the barn to milk three cows. The first farmer begins milking his cow at time 300 (measured in seconds after 5 am) and ends at time 1000. The second farmer begins at time 700 and ends at time 1200. The third farmer begins at time 1500 and ends at time 2100. read more

The only time anything interesting happens is when there’s a jump between intervals, because that’s when there’s idle time and also when there’s a break in continuity of milking cows. All we need to check is if the next interval is a “real” jump, keeping track of the “current greatest right value” and the left point of the current interval. read more