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Greedy Pattern: Erase Overlapping Intervals (LeetCode 435) Explained

Greedy Pattern: Erase Overlapping Intervals (LeetCode 435)

Some problems quietly test whether you recognize a classic greedy pattern. Erase Overlapping Intervals is one of them.

At first glance, it feels like an interval-merging problem. But once you pause and think — the real objective becomes clear:

Remove the minimum number of intervals so that the remaining intervals do not overlap.

Problem Restatement

Given an array of intervals where intervals[i] = [start, end], return the minimum number of intervals you need to remove to make the rest non-overlapping.

Key Insight (Pattern Recognition)

Instead of asking:

Which intervals should I remove? <
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