Suppose we have a staircase with n steps and we also have another number k, initially we are at stair 0, and we can climb up either 1, 2 or 3 steps at a time. but we can only climb 3 stairs at most k times. Now we have to find the number of ways we can climb the staircase.
So, if the input is like n = 5, k = 2, then the output will be 13, as there are different ways we can climb the stairs −
- [1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
- [2, 1, 1, 1]
- [1, 2, 1, 1]
- [1, 1, 2, 1]
- [1, 1, 1, 2]
- [1, 2, 2]
- [2, 1, 2]
- [2, 2, 1]
- [1, 1, 3]
- [1, 3, 1]
- [3, 1, 1]
- [2, 3]
- [3, 2]
To solve this, we will follow these steps −
- if n is same as 0, then
- return 1
- if n is same as 1, then
- return 1
- k:= minimum of k, n
- memo:= a matrix of size (n+1) x (k+1)
- for r in range 0 to k, do
- memo[r, 0]:= 1, memo[r, 1]:= 1, memo[r, 2]:= 2
- for i in range 3 to n, do
- memo[0, i]:= memo[0, i-1] + memo[0, i-2]
- for j in range 1 to k, do
- for i in range 3 to n, do
- count := quotient of i/3
- if count <= j, then
- memo[j, i]:= memo[j, i-1] + memo[j, i-2] + memo[j, i-3]
- otherwise,
- memo[j, i]:= memo[j, i-1] + memo[j, i-2] + memo[j-1, i-3]
- for i in range 3 to n, do
- return memo[k, n]
Let us see the following implementation to get better understanding −
Example
class Solution: def solve(self, n, k): if n==0: return 1 if n==1: return 1 k= min(k,n) memo=[[0]*(n+1) for _ in range(k+1)] for r in range(k+1): memo[r][0]=1 memo[r][1]=1 memo[r][2]=2 for i in range(3,n+1): memo[0][i]=memo[0][i-1]+memo[0][i-2] for j in range(1,k+1): for i in range(3,n+1): count = i//3 if count<=j: memo[j][i]=memo[j][i-1]+memo[j][i-2]+memo[j][i-3] else: memo[j][i]=memo[j][i-1]+memo[j][i-2]+memo[j-1][i-3] return memo[k][n] ob = Solution() print(ob.solve(n = 5, k = 2))
Input
5, 2
Output
13