Detonate the Maximum Bombs
A medium-tier problem at 49% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Math, Depth-First Search. Reported in interviews at Chime and 2 others.
You're looking at a problem Google, Uber, and Chime have actually asked: Detonate the Maximum Bombs. It sits at medium difficulty with a 49% acceptance rate, which means half the engineers who see it live blank on the geometry or graph-traversal angle. The trap is thinking this is just an array problem. It's not. You need to model bomb detonations as a graph where each bomb can trigger others in its blast radius, then find the chain reaction that kills the most. If you hit this in your live OA and freeze on how to structure the graph or which traversal to use, StealthCoder runs invisibly during screen share and hands you a working solution in seconds.
Companies that ask "Detonate the Maximum Bombs"
Detonate the Maximum Bombs 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. Built by an Amazon engineer who realized the OA tests how well you memorized 200 problems, not how well you code.
Get StealthCoderThe core insight is treating bombs as nodes and detonation chains as edges based on geometry. First, you calculate which bombs fall within each bomb's blast radius using distance or coordinate logic. That becomes your adjacency list. Then you pick a starting bomb and run a depth-first search or breadth-first search to count all reachable detonations. The twist is trying every starting bomb because the maximum chain might not begin with the first one. Most candidates either skip the geometric calculation, mishandle the graph traversal, or assume a greedy start point works. The problem needs Array logic to store bomb data, Math for radius calculations, Graph theory to model the chain reactions, and either DFS or BFS to explore all possible detonations. StealthCoder catches the moment you're stuck on how to frame the traversal and delivers a solution that handles all edge cases.
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Detonate the Maximum Bombs 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. Built by an Amazon engineer who realized the OA tests how well you memorized 200 problems, not how well you code. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Detonate the Maximum Bombs interview FAQ
Is this really asked at Google and Uber, or is that speculation?+
It's in our company-ask dataset. Chime, Google, and Uber have all reported this problem in their live assessments. That said, the specific round and frequency vary. It's concrete enough that you should be ready for it.
What's the actual trick to this problem?+
Model it as a graph. Calculate which bombs are within each bomb's blast radius using geometry, then use DFS or BFS to traverse all detonations from every possible starting bomb. Return the maximum count. Most people miss the graph-building step and try to solve it with greedy logic.
Do I need both DFS and BFS, or is one enough?+
One traversal method is enough. Both DFS and BFS will explore the same reachable nodes. Pick whichever you code faster. The hard part is building the adjacency list correctly, not the traversal itself.
How does the geometry part work exactly?+
For each bomb, calculate the distance to every other bomb using the given coordinate system. If the distance is within that bomb's blast radius, the other bomb is in its detonation range. That becomes an edge in your graph. Get this wrong and the whole solution breaks.
With 49% acceptance, is this one of the harder mediums?+
Yes. The acceptance rate suggests most engineers slip on either the geometry calculation, the graph construction, or handling all starting points. It's a medium that behaves like a hard if you don't nail the modeling step first.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Detonate the Maximum Bombs" on LeetCode →