Maximum Length of Pair Chain
A medium-tier problem at 61% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Dynamic Programming, Greedy. Reported in interviews at Swiggy and 0 others.
Maximum Length of Pair Chain is a medium-difficulty problem that looks like a DP problem but rewards greedy thinking instead. You're given pairs of numbers and need to chain them so that each pair's second element is less than the next pair's first element. Your goal is the longest possible chain. Swiggy has asked it. The acceptance rate is around 61%, which means most people who submit pass, but the gap between the obvious approach and the optimal one trips up plenty of candidates in the live OA. This is where StealthCoder becomes your insurance policy if the greedy insight doesn't click under time pressure.
Companies that ask "Maximum Length of Pair Chain"
Maximum Length of Pair Chain 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 FAANG engineer who treats the OA the way companies treat hiring: as a game with rules you should know.
Get StealthCoderThe trap here is reaching for dynamic programming immediately. You can sort by pair start and build a DP table, and it works, but it's O(n squared) and clunky to code correctly under stress. The actual trick is sorting by the end value of each pair, then greedily picking pairs in that order. You always pick the pair with the earliest end time because it leaves the most room for future pairs. It's O(n log n) due to sorting and single-pass selection. Most candidates spend the first 5 minutes coding DP, realize it's slow, then panic. If you hit this problem live and the greedy pattern doesn't surface, StealthCoder solves it in seconds with the sorted-by-end approach already rendered, letting you submit and move on instead of thrashing.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Maximum Length of Pair Chain 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 FAANG engineer who treats the OA the way companies treat hiring: as a game with rules you should know. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Maximum Length of Pair Chain interview FAQ
Is this really asked at big tech companies or is it only a Swiggy problem?+
The data shows Swiggy in the confirmed list. It's a classic greedy + sorting problem, so similar variants appear at other companies in interviews. The pattern is portable even if the exact problem isn't. Medium difficulty and 61% acceptance suggests it's a real filter, not a throwaway.
What's the trick that makes this not a DP problem?+
Greedy works because you're maximizing count, not value. Sorting pairs by end time and picking greedily (earliest end first) guarantees the longest chain. DP works but is unnecessarily complex. The insight is that leaving room for future pairs beats starting early.
How much does the greedy solution actually matter on the OA?+
If you code DP under time pressure, you'll likely have bugs and be slower. The greedy approach is 5 lines of logic after sorting. In a 30-minute OA window with multiple problems, clean and fast matters. Greedy is the safe play.
What if I confuse this with the activity selection problem?+
Activity selection is almost identical in structure. Both sort by end time, both pick greedily. The difference is cosmetic. If you've seen one, the other is a reskin. That's why knowing the pattern matters.
Can I still pass if I only do the DP solution?+
Yes, DP passes all test cases. It's just slower to code and more error-prone. Greedy is the cleaner signal of mastery. On a 61% acceptance rate problem, cleanliness and speed matter for ranking your solution.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Maximum Length of Pair Chain" on LeetCode →