Maximize score after pair deletions

Array Greedy

52.5% acceptance

Mar 31, 2026

You are given an array of integers nums. You must repeatedly perform one of the following operations while the array has more than two elements: Remove the first two elements. Remove the last two elements. Remove the first and last element. For each operation, add the sum of the removed elements to your total score. Return the maximum possible score you can achieve.

Solution

Rust

Time O(n)

Space O(1)

LeetCode

solution.rs

impl Solution {
  pub fn max_score(nums: Vec<i32>) -> i32 {
    let n = nums.len();
    let total: i32 = nums.iter().sum();
    if n <= 2 {
      return 0;
    }
    if n % 2 == 1 {
      // Leave the minimum element
      total - *nums.iter().min().unwrap()
    } else {
      // Leave the adjacent pair with minimum sum
      let min_pair = (0..n - 1).map(|i| nums[i] + nums[i + 1]).min().unwrap();
      total - min_pair
    }
  }
}