Total Cost to Hire K Workers
A medium-tier problem at 43% community acceptance, tagged with Array, Two Pointers, Heap (Priority Queue). Reported in interviews at GSA Capital and 3 others.
Total Cost to Hire K Workers sits at 43% acceptance, which means nearly 6 in 10 people who see it live blank or timeout. GSA Capital, MathWorks, Zomato, and BNY Mellon have all asked it. The problem looks simple on the surface: hire K workers to minimize total cost. But the constraint that ties wage and quality together trips most candidates. You drill it once, you own it. You don't, and you're guessing under pressure. StealthCoder solves this instantly if you hit it cold during your assessment.
Companies that ask "Total Cost to Hire K Workers"
Total Cost to Hire K Workers 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 trick is recognizing this isn't a pure greedy or sorting problem. You can't just pick the K cheapest workers. The cost formula enforces a relationship: total cost equals the captain's wage times the sum of all K workers' quality ratings. So the moment you pick a captain (a wage threshold), you're locked into paying everyone else at least that wage. The right move is to iterate through potential captains, maintain a heap of the best quality workers you've seen so far, and swap out the worst quality worker if adding a new one lowers the total cost. Array iteration, heap operations, and the two-pointer sweep come together. Most people either overcomplicate with sorting and miss the heap, or they try pure greedy and fail on the constraint. StealthCoder shows the heap-based simulation instantly, no second-guessing.
Pattern tags
You know the problem.
Make sure you actually pass it.
Total Cost to Hire K Workers 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.
Total Cost to Hire K Workers interview FAQ
Why can't I just sort by wage and pick the first K?+
Because the captain's wage multiplies the total quality. Picking cheap workers early might force you to pay a higher wage to a captain, raising cost overall. You need to test multiple captain candidates and recompute total cost each time, which is where the heap strategy beats brute force.
Is this still asked at top companies?+
Yes. GSA Capital, MathWorks, Zomato, and BNY Mellon have all reported it. 43% acceptance rate suggests it's a solid mid-level filter, not an ultra-rare problem. It's the kind of thing that separates candidates who can handle constraint-based optimization from those who can't.
What's the main pitfall candidates hit?+
Not recognizing the heap is the key data structure. Most people try to sort and greedily pick, or they simulate all K choices without maintaining state. The correct approach locks in a captain, tracks quality with a max-heap, and drops the worst quality worker when a better option exists. Missing that pattern costs 10-15 minutes.
How do Array, Two Pointers, and Heap connect here?+
You sort workers by wage (Array). Iterate through as captain candidates (Two Pointers / loop). Maintain a max-heap of quality ratings from all workers you've seen. For each captain, pop the highest quality if you exceed K workers, then recompute cost. All three topics are essential.
If I've only drilled heap basics, am I ready for this?+
Not quite. Heap basics is necessary but this requires understanding the cost formula constraint and when to apply heap operations within a loop. One practice run through the simulation logic is the minimum. If you hit it live unprepared, StealthCoder handles the simulation in seconds, invisible to the proctor.
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