Max Sum Increasing Subsequence
Problem Statement
You are given an array arr of positive integers.
Pick a subsequence whose values are strictly increasing, and add up its values. Return the largest sum that any such subsequence can give. The answer is a sum, not a count of items.
The function is int maxSumIS(vector<int>& arr).
An array of positive integers arr.
One number: the largest sum of a strictly increasing subsequence.
The chain 1, 2, 3, 100 sums to 106. The chain 1, 101 sums to 102, which is less.
The chain 1, 2, 3 sums to 6. The single 4 gives only 4.
The chain 1, 2, 4 sums to 7. Two 4s cannot be in a strictly increasing chain.
- • 1 ≤ arr.size() ≤ 10^3
- • 1 ≤ arr[i] ≤ 10^5
Pattern Recognition Clues
Recognising these key signals in the problem description immediately identifies the pattern:
Approach Complexity Ladder
Recurse over the items: skip one, or take it if it is bigger than the last one taken, adding its value
msis[i] = arr[i] + the best msis[j] over earlier smaller j; the answer is the largest msis
Walk through the items from left to right. For each one, either skip it, or take it when it is bigger than the last value taken, and add its value to the sum. The answer is the best sum over all the paths.
Recognition rule for this sub-pattern:
Unlock Complete Visual Walkthrough & Optimal C++
The interactive animated dry-run player, optimized C++ implementation, state invariant derivations, and edge-case breakdown for this question are part of Brute2Best Pro. The anchor question of every sub-pattern is completely free.
First anchor question per pattern, Part 1 LLD & Module 1 C++ basics are 100% Free forever.
How this concept connects to System Design & C++ Systems
Top engineering interviews test whether you understand how algorithms like DP — Longest Increasing Subsequence translate into production architectures and low-level memory mechanics.
Foundations: Object-Oriented Principles in C++23
Class invariants, pure virtual interfaces, and RAII smart pointers.
Food Delivery System (Zomato Architecture)
Real-world machine coding application of algorithms and design patterns.
Pointers vs References Deep Dive
Pointer arithmetic and memory layout under the hood.
Virtual Method Table (vtable) & Memory Layout
Polymorphism, vptr overhead, and multiple inheritance in memory.