Greedy Algorithms8 sections · 316 units
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Wrong Approach 1 - Earliest Start

Why it fails

Greedy by earliest start time: always pick the activity that starts earliest.

Example: (0,10), (1,2), (3,4). Greedy picks (0,10) first. Now (1,2) and (3,4) both conflict with (0,10). Greedy gets only 11 activity. But the optimal is (1,2), (3,4) for 22 activities. Starting early does not help if the activity runs too long. It blocks better options.

The problem: you commit to a long activity before seeing what it blocks. This greedy strategy fails because start time does not capture opportunity cost.