Project friendly-coins
Friendly-coins is a small, toy problem which one could imagine being assigned as a coding exercise (like, for an interview, let’s say, hypothetically …)
The problem, which is stated more explicitly in code repository, is basically this: Given a set of coin denominations (e.g., 1, 5, and 10 cents), decide whether the strategy of always making change using the largest denomination possible will result in any amount of given change having a minimal number of coins. A Non-friendly set of denominations is 1, 4, 5, because if I need 8 cents, then using the Highest-First strategy, you will give me a 5 cent coin and three 1 cent coins, but I would have preferred two 4 cent coins.
Google Code project page (this is where the SVN repo is):
http://code.google.com/p/cumulus-code/source/browse/#svn/friendly-coins/
SVN Repo:
https://cumulus-code.googlecode.com/svn/friendly-coins/java
Mingle Beach Project card (internal only):
https://mingle01.thoughtworks.com/projects/beach_projects/cards/19