Find Maximum Packages
Reported by candidates from Amazon's online assessment. Pattern, common pitfall, and the honest play if you blank under the timer.
Amazon's October 2024 OA is asking you to maximize packages. No problem text is available yet, but the title alone tells you this is a resource allocation or greedy optimization problem. You're likely choosing which packages to process, ship, or select within constraints like weight, time, or capacity. This is a classic greedy or dynamic programming pattern. StealthCoder will read the actual constraints when you're live and guide you to the right approach in real time if the logic doesn't click immediately.
Pattern and pitfall
The trick here is recognizing the constraint structure. If it's a weight/capacity problem with independent packages, greedy works: sort by value or ratio and take the best until you hit the limit. If packages have dependencies or time windows, it's dynamic programming. The common mistake is trying to brute-force all combinations. Start by identifying: are packages independent? Is there a capacity or count limit? Does order matter? Once you name the constraint, the algorithm follows. StealthCoder acts as your safety net during the OA, instantly showing you which greedy or DP pattern fits when you're under time pressure.
Memorize the pattern. If you can't, run StealthCoder. The proctor sees the IDE. They don't see what's behind it.
You can drill Find Maximum Packages cold, or you can hedge it. StealthCoder runs invisibly during screen share and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. The proctor sees the IDE. They don't see what's behind it. Made by an engineer who treats the OA as theater. If yours is tonight, you don't have time to grind. You have time to hedge.
Get StealthCoderRelated leaked OAs
You've seen the question.
Make sure you actually pass Amazon's OA.
Amazon reuses patterns across OAs. Made by an engineer who treats the OA as theater. If yours is tonight, you don't have time to grind. You have time to hedge. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Find Maximum Packages FAQ
Is this a variant of the knapsack problem?+
Possibly. If each package has a weight and value, and you have a capacity limit, it's 0-1 knapsack or fractional knapsack. Test the examples: if you can take partial packages, use greedy (sort by value-to-weight ratio). If not, dynamic programming. Amazon often disguises knapsack as 'maximize shipments' or similar.
What if the problem has time windows or priorities?+
Then it's weighted interval scheduling or a priority greedy. Sort by deadline or priority, then greedily pick packages in order. This is still O(n log n) and much faster than DP. Check the examples to confirm whether you need DP or if greedy suffices.
How do I know if greedy is correct here?+
Greedy works if the problem has the greedy choice property: picking the locally optimal choice (highest value, best ratio, earliest deadline) at each step leads to a global optimum. Test on the examples. If your greedy solution matches the expected output, you're safe.
What's the pitfall in 'maximum packages'?+
Confusing 'maximum count of packages' with 'maximum value.' If the goal is to maximize COUNT, sort by size and take smallest first. If it's VALUE, sort by value or ratio. Read the output carefully. Amazon often hides this in the wording.
Can I solve this in 48 hours if I haven't seen it?+
Yes. Identify the constraint (weight, time, value, count). Write a greedy solution first, test on examples. If it fails, switch to DP with memoization. Both are standard patterns. The OA tests pattern recognition, not novel algorithms. You likely know this shape already.