PROBLEMS/CORE DP
Core DP LeetCode Problems
418 hand-tagged Core DP problems across 7 interview patterns (Linear Recurrence DP, Longest Increasing Subsequence, Word Break / String DP, Unbounded Knapsack, 0/1 Knapsack, Two Sequence DP (LCS, Edit distance), Grid Path Problems), ranked by importance (how often each pattern shows up in real coding interviews). Work top-down within each pattern.
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Climbing Stairs | Easy | 1098 | 92 | |
| 2 | House Robber | Easy | 1274 | 92 | |
| 3 | Min Cost Climbing Stairs | Easy | 1358 | 88 | |
| 4 | Maximum Product Subarray | Medium | 1438 | 86 | Kadane's Algorithm (Max Subarray) |
| 5 | Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Cooldown | Medium | 1538 | 84 |
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium | 1407 | 93 | Boundary Finding (Bisect Left/Right) |
| 2 | Find the Longest Valid Obstacle Course at Each Position | Hard | 1933 | 78 | Boundary Finding (Bisect Left/Right) |
| 3 | Russian Doll Envelopes | Hard | 2062 | 78 | Sorting + Comparison · Boundary Finding (Bisect Left/Right) |
| 4 | Number of Longest Increasing Subsequence | Medium | 1744 | 74 | Linear Recurrence DP |
| 5 | Longest String Chain | Medium | 1599 | 73 | Frequency Counting / Hash Map Lookup · Sorting + Comparison |
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Word Break | Medium | 1560 | 92 | Frequency Counting / Hash Map Lookup · BFS Shortest Path (Unweighted) |
| 2 | Extra Characters in a String | Medium | 1736 | 82 | Trie Construction / Prefix Search · Frequency Counting / Hash Map Lookup |
| 3 | Construct String with Minimum Cost (Easy)PREMIUM | Medium | 1685 | 72 | Trie Construction / Prefix Search · Frequency Counting / Hash Map Lookup |
| 4 | Word Break II | Hard | 1834 | 72 | String Partitioning (Palindrome Partitioning) · Frequency Counting / Hash Map Lookup |
| 5 | Concatenated Words | Hard | 1840 | 63 | Trie Construction / Prefix Search · Sorting + Comparison |
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coin Change | Easy | 1337 | 93 | |
| 2 | Coin Change II | Medium | 1523 | 91 | Linear Recurrence DP |
| 3 | Perfect Squares | Medium | 1405 | 88 | BFS Shortest Path (Unweighted) · General Math |
| 4 | Combination Sum IV | Easy | 1372 | 82 | Frequency Counting / Hash Map Lookup |
| 5 | Number of Dice Rolls With Target Sum | Medium | 1654 | 82 | Linear Recurrence DP · Modular Arithmetic |
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Partition Equal Subset Sum | Medium | 1548 | 91 | |
| 2 | Target Sum | Medium | 1534 | 88 | Combinations / Subsets |
| 3 | Last Stone Weight II | Hard | 2092 | 82 | |
| 4 | Number of Ways to Earn Points | Hard | 1910 | 74 | Modular Arithmetic |
| 5 | Maximum Profit From Trading StocksPREMIUM | Medium | 1541 | 73 | General Greedy (Greedy is main insight) |
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Longest Common Subsequence | Medium | 1580 | 93 | |
| 2 | Edit Distance | Medium | 1574 | 92 | Word Break / String DP |
| 3 | Distinct Subsequences | Medium | 1727 | 82 | |
| 4 | Uncrossed Lines | Hard | 1806 | 82 | |
| 5 | Interleaving String | Medium | 1668 | 80 |
| # | PROBLEM | DIFF | ELO | IMP | PATTERNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unique Paths | Easy | 1248 | 91 | Combinatorics |
| 2 | Minimum Path Sum | Easy | 1279 | 84 | Matrix Traversal (Diagonal, Valid Sudoku, etc) |
| 3 | Unique Paths II | Easy | 1309 | 79 | Matrix Traversal (Diagonal, Valid Sudoku, etc) |
| 4 | Count Square Submatrices with All Ones | Medium | 1613 | 78 | Matrix Traversal (Diagonal, Valid Sudoku, etc) |
| 5 | Triangle | Easy | 1324 | 76 |
EVERY PATTERN
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