{"id":590,"date":"2025-07-09T18:47:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/codeanddebug.in\/blog\/?p=590"},"modified":"2025-07-09T18:47:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:17:32","slug":"minimum-number-of-days-to-make-m-bouquets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/codeanddebug.in\/blog\/minimum-number-of-days-to-make-m-bouquets\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimum Number of Days to Make m Bouquets | Leetcode 1482 | Binary Search on Answers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The “Minimum Number\u00a0of Days to Make\u00a0m Bouquets” problem\u00a0is a popular\u00a0binary search\u00a0interview question\u00a0that tests your\u00a0ability to optimize\u00a0under constraints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, we\u2019ll explain\u00a0the problem, walk\u00a0you through both\u00a0brute force and\u00a0optimal solutions, and make everything\u00a0easy to understand\u00a0with code comments, dry runs, and\u00a0clear explanations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the [Problem Link<\/span><\/mark><\/a><\/strong>] to begin with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Does the Problem Say?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You are given an integer array bloomDay<\/code>, an integer m<\/code> and an integer k<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You want to make m<\/code> bouquets. To make a bouquet, you need to use k<\/code> adjacent flowers<\/strong> from the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The garden consists of n<\/code> flowers, the ith<\/sup><\/code> flower will bloom in the bloomDay[i]<\/code> and then can be used in exactly one<\/strong> bouquet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Return the minimum number of days you need to wait to be able to make <\/em>m<\/code> bouquets from the garden<\/em>. If it is impossible to make m bouquets return -1<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Input:<\/strong> bloomDay = [1,10,3,10,2], m = 3, k = 1
Output:<\/strong> 3
Explanation:<\/strong> Let us see what happened in the first three days. x means flower bloomed and _ means flower did not bloom in the garden.
We need 3 bouquets each should contain 1 flower.
After day 1: [x, _, _, _, _]   \/\/ we can only make one bouquet.
After day 2: [x, _, _, _, x]   \/\/ we can only make two bouquets.
After day 3: [x, _, x, _, x]   \/\/ we can make 3 bouquets. The answer is 3.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Example 2:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Input:<\/strong> bloomDay = [1,10,3,10,2], m = 3, k = 2
Output:<\/strong> -1
Explanation:<\/strong> We need 3 bouquets each has 2 flowers, that means we need 6 flowers. We only have 5 flowers so it is impossible to get the needed bouquets and we return -1.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Example 3:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Input:<\/strong> bloomDay = [7,7,7,7,12,7,7], m = 2, k = 3
Output:<\/strong> 12
Explanation:<\/strong> We need 2 bouquets each should have 3 flowers.
Here is the garden after the 7 and 12 days:
After day 7: [x, x, x, x, _, x, x]
We can make one bouquet of the first three flowers that bloomed. We cannot make another bouquet from the last three flowers that bloomed because they are not adjacent.
After day 12: [x, x, x, x, x, x, x]
It is obvious that we can make two bouquets in different ways.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Constraints:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n