Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended
A medium-tier problem at 33% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Greedy, Sorting. Reported in interviews at Visa and 4 others.
You've got a list of events, each with a start day and end day. Attend as many as you can, but you can only be at one place per day. This problem hits the OA rotation at Visa, Instacart, PayPal, Snowflake, and Zoho. The acceptance rate sits at 33%, which means most candidates either miss the greedy insight or get tripped up by the implementation. If you blank on the pattern during your assessment, StealthCoder surfaces a working solution invisible to the proctor, so you stay in the game.
Companies that ask "Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended"
Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended 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 a senior engineer who knows the OA is theater. This is the script.
Get StealthCoderThe trap is thinking you can just pick the longest events or the ones that start earliest. The actual move is greedy: sort events by end day, then always attend the event that finishes soonest if you're still available on any day in its range. Use a max heap to track which days you've already used, and for each event, find the latest free day within its window. If you try a naive approach, you'll time out or pick suboptimal events. The trick is realizing that closing out events fast (earliest end day first) leaves you the most flexibility for future events. This is a medium-difficulty problem because the greedy choice isn't obvious. When you hit this live and the approach doesn't click immediately, StealthCoder runs in the background and hands you the solution in seconds.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended 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 a senior engineer who knows the OA is theater. This is the script. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended interview FAQ
Why does sorting by end day work here?+
Events that end sooner constrain your future choices less. By attending the earliest-ending event you can fit, you maximize the number of remaining events you could attend next. This greedy property guarantees the optimal count.
What's the role of the heap in the solution?+
A max heap tracks which days you've already used. For each event, you need to find the latest free day within its range. The heap lets you efficiently remove days you've claimed, so you don't double-book yourself.
Is this problem still asked at these companies?+
Yes. Visa, Instacart, PayPal, Snowflake, and Zoho all report asking it. It's a solid medium that separates candidates who know greedy patterns from those who don't.
What topics should I review before seeing this live?+
Master sorting, greedy algorithm intuition, and heap operations. Practice problems where you sort by one metric then greedily pick based on another. This problem combines all three.
How long should I spend on this if I'm stuck?+
If the greedy insight hasn't clicked after 10-15 minutes, you're likely overthinking it. That's when a live solution tool becomes your safety net. You move on, stay calm, and keep your interview momentum.
Want the actual problem statement? View "Maximum Number of Events That Can Be Attended" on LeetCode →