Maximum Energy Boost From Two Drinks

Problem Description

You are given two integer arrays energyDrinkA and energyDrinkB of the same length n. These arrays represent the energy boosts per hour provided by two different energy drinks, A and B, respectively. You want to maximize your total energy boost by drinking one energy drink per hour. However, if you want to switch from consuming one energy drink to the other, you need to wait for one hour to cleanse your system (meaning you won't get any energy boost in that hour). Return the maximum total energy boost you can gain in the next n hours. Note that you can start consuming either of the two energy drinks.

Key Insights

• You can choose to start with either energy drink A or B.
• Switching drinks incurs a penalty of one hour with no energy boost.
• The problem can be solved using a dynamic programming approach to keep track of the maximum energy achievable at each hour.

Space and Time Complexity

Time Complexity: O(n)
Space Complexity: O(n)

Solution

We can utilize a dynamic programming approach to solve the problem. We maintain two arrays (or values) to store the maximum energy boost at each hour depending on whether we are currently drinking from energy drink A or B.

1. Initialization: Start by setting the maximum boost for the first hour based on the values from both drinks.
2. Iterate: For each subsequent hour, calculate the maximum energy boost achievable by either continuing with the same drink or switching drinks while accounting for the penalty period.
3. Final Calculation: The result will be the maximum value obtained after processing all hours.

This approach ensures we efficiently compute the maximum possible energy boost while adhering to the switching penalty.

Code Solutions