Convoy Load Balancing With Escort Weight - Google Online Assessment 16 Aug 2026

Problem Preview

"Captain Reyes runs a supply convoy along a single desert highway. The crates waiting at base camp are lined up in a fixed order on the loading dock, and their order can never be changed — trucks must scoop up a **contiguous run of crates** exactly as they sit on the dock. Every truck also drags a fixed **escort trailer**, whose weight is added once to whatever load the truck is already carrying. One of the safety rules caps how many crates a single truck bed may physically hold, regardless of how light those crates are. Reyes has a fixed number of trucks available and must use **every single one of them**, dividing the full line of crates into exactly **k non-empty contiguous groups**, with no group containing more than the allowed number of crates. Reyes wants to know the **smallest possible value for the heaviest truck's total load** (crates + escort trailer), if the crates are split as evenly as possible into those many contiguous, capacity-respecting groups. ### Function Description Implement the function: `minMaxConvoyLoad` ### Parameters * `n` — the number of crates on the dock. * `k` — the number of trucks that must be used. The dock is split into exactly `k` contiguous non-empty groups. * `escort` — the fixed escort trailer weight added once to every truck's load. * `maxCrates` — the maximum number of crates that a single truck can carry. * `weights[]` — an array containing the weight of each crate in their fixed order. ### Requirements * The order of crates cannot be changed. * Every truck must receive at least one crate. * Each truck must receive a contiguous segment of the array. * No truck can carry more than `maxCrates` crates. * Exactly `k` trucks must be used. * The load of a truck is the sum of its assigned crate weights plus `escort`. * Return the minimum possible value of the **maximum truck load**. ### Example **Input** ```text 6 3 2 2 10 1 1 1 1 10 ``` **Output** ```text 13 ``` ### Explanation The crates can be divided into 3 contiguous groups: ```text [10] [1 1] [1 1 10] ``` Their crate loads are: ```text 10, 2, 12 ``` Adding the escort weight `2` to every truck: ```text 12, 4, 14 ``` So the maximum load is `14`. The objective is to find the **minimum possible maximum load** among all valid contiguous partitions."