Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets
A medium-tier problem at 55% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Binary Search. Reported in interviews at Navi and 1 others.
Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets shows up in live assessments at Navi and Flipkart, and about half the people who attempt it don't pass. You've got an array of flower bloom days, a target number of bouquets to make, and a constraint on how many consecutive bloomed flowers you need per bouquet. The trap is thinking greedy or simulation first. You need binary search, but not in the obvious way. If this problem hits your OA and you can't see the pattern, StealthCoder surfaces the solution in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
Companies that ask "Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets"
Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets is the kind of problem that decides whether you pass. StealthCoder reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Invisible to screen share. The proctor sees nothing. Made by a working Amazon engineer who got tired of watching qualified friends bomb OAs they'd solve cold in an IDE.
Get StealthCoderThe real trick is recognizing that you're not searching an array for a value. You're searching the range of possible days (1 to max bloom day) to find the minimum day on which you can make exactly m bouquets with k consecutive bloomed flowers each. For each candidate day, you simulate one pass through the bloom array, count how many valid bouquets you can form, then use binary search to narrow the answer space. Most candidates try greedy or fail because they don't realize the search space is time, not the array itself. The simulation part is linear, but without binary search you'll time out. This is where candidates blank during screen share. StealthCoder recognizes the pattern and hands you both the search structure and the validation logic.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets recycles across companies for a reason. It's medium-tier, and most candidates blank under the timer. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Made by a working Amazon engineer who got tired of watching qualified friends bomb OAs they'd solve cold in an IDE. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets interview FAQ
Is this really asked at companies like Navi and Flipkart?+
Yes. Both companies appear in the report data for this problem. It's a mid-level screening favorite because it tests whether you see binary search as a tool for non-obvious search spaces, not just sorted arrays.
What's the main mistake candidates make?+
Trying to solve it with greedy or simulation alone. The problem requires you to binary search on the answer (the day), not on the input array. If you're iterating through all possible days, you'll time out.
How does Binary Search actually apply here?+
You search the range 1 to max(bloom days) for the smallest day where you can form m bouquets. For each mid-point, simulate one pass to count bouquets. If count >= m, search lower. Otherwise search higher.
Do I need to preprocess the Array before binary search?+
No preprocessing needed. You iterate the array once per binary search iteration to count valid bouquets. The array itself doesn't need sorting. You're only searching the time range.
What's the acceptance rate and should I worry?+
55% pass rate. That's not terrible, but it means almost half struggle. Most fail because they don't recognize the binary search on answer pattern. Knowing that pattern beforehand is a massive advantage.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets" on LeetCode →