Minimum Addition to Make Integer Beautiful
A medium-tier problem at 38% community acceptance, tagged with Math, Greedy. Reported in interviews at Infosys and 0 others.
Minimum Addition to Make Integer Beautiful is a medium-difficulty problem that trips up candidates who overthink it. You're given an integer and a digit sum target, and you need to find the smallest number to add so the result has a digit sum below the threshold. Infosys has asked this. The obvious greedy approach works, but only if you understand why you can't just tweak individual digits. Most candidates get tangled in the mechanics of digit manipulation when the real insight is simpler. If this problem hits your live assessment and you blank on the pattern, StealthCoder solves it in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
Companies that ask "Minimum Addition to Make Integer Beautiful"
Minimum Addition to Make Integer Beautiful 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 used it to pass JPMorgan's OA and system design loop.
Get StealthCoderThe trick here is recognizing that when you need to reduce digit sum, you don't patch individual digits. Instead, you increment the number until its digit sum naturally falls below the threshold. The greedy move is to add the minimum amount that bumps you to a round number (like the next power of 10), which resets most digits to zero. The catch: candidates try to surgically reduce digits or compute the exact addition without seeing that rounding up actually minimizes the answer. Math and Greedy are the core topics because you're applying a mathematical property of digit sums under addition, paired with a greedy choice of when to stop incrementing. The acceptance rate of roughly 38 percent signals this isn't trivial; many candidates either implement a brute-force loop or misunderstand how digit sums behave after adding a value. StealthCoder is the hedge for the one problem you didn't drill, especially if you're prepping for Infosys or similar teams.
Pattern tags
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Minimum Addition to Make Integer Beautiful 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 used it to pass JPMorgan's OA and system design loop. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Minimum Addition to Make Integer Beautiful interview FAQ
Is this problem actually asked at big companies, or just niche interviewers?+
Infosys has reported asking it. The acceptance rate is roughly 38 percent, which is lower than typical medium problems, suggesting it's not a mainstream favorite but shows up in structured assessment rounds. Not FAANG-frequent, but real enough to prepare for if you see it in your problem list.
What's the main trick I'm missing if I get WA on the examples?+
You're probably trying to reduce digit sum by tweaking individual digits instead of rounding up. The optimal move is to add enough to reach the next power of 10 (or similar boundary), which resets digits to zero. Brute force (incrementing and checking) works for small inputs but times out on large ones. Think greedy, not surgical.
How does Greedy actually apply here?+
Greedy means you make the locally optimal choice at each step: add the minimum amount to get to a round boundary. Since digit sum resets when you hit a power of 10, that's your target. You're not choosing between multiple strategies; you're recognizing the optimal boundary and jumping straight to it.
Do I need heavy math background to solve this?+
No. The Math topic here is just digit sum arithmetic. You need to know that digit sums change predictably when you add numbers, and that rounding up to a power of 10 zeros out most digits. No modular arithmetic or number theory tricks. It's straightforward if you see the pattern.
If I blank on this during a live assessment, how much time will I lose?+
Without the insight, you could waste 15-20 minutes on brute force or wrong greedy logic. The implementation is short once you get the idea, so the cost is pure thinking time. That's where StealthCoder saves you: working solution in seconds if you hit a wall.
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