Compute maximum non-overlapping meetings
Company: Morgan Stanley
Role: Data Scientist
Category: Coding & Algorithms
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
Assume you are given a list of meeting time intervals for a single person.
Each meeting i is represented by a pair of integers [start_i, end_i], where 0 <= start_i < end_i, and all times are in the same unit.
You can attend at most one meeting at any given time, and you must attend a meeting for its entire duration if you choose it. Meetings that touch at a boundary (for example, one ends at time t and another starts at time t) do not overlap and can both be attended.
Write a function that, given the list of intervals, returns the maximum number of meetings you can attend by selecting a subset of non-overlapping intervals.
You may assume:
- 1 <= n <= 2 * 10^5
- |start_i|, |end_i| <= 10^9
Clarify the algorithmic problem and return the maximum count of meetings; implementation details are not required here.
Overview: This question evaluates understanding of interval scheduling and related algorithmic concepts, including complexity analysis, handling of boundary conditions, and management of large input sizes.
Read the full Morgan Stanley Data Scientist interview experience this question came from
Return the maximum number of full meetings that can be attended when boundary-touching meetings are allowed.
Constraints
- Inputs are provided as Python literals matching the function signature.
- Return a deterministic exact-match result.
Examples
Input: ([[0,30],[5,10],[10,20]],)
Expected Output: 2
Explanation: Choose two short meetings.
Input: ([[1,2],[2,3],[3,4]],)
Expected Output: 3
Explanation: Touching boundaries allowed.
Hints
- Choose a representation that makes the core operation simple.
- Handle empty and boundary inputs before the main algorithm.