Uh, I didn't mention the algorithm at all. As someone else mentioned, the hard part of this problem is finding an optimal solution; there's some minor stuff with keeping information together and building a modular program, but what I said is completely unrelated to that.

As we're entirely just discussing the spec, and not the secret hidden hardness of this problem, could you tell me what I missed? If you're concerned for their confidentiality, then email it to me at [email protected]

Disclosure: I'm not planning to apply to this job or to complete this challenge, because I have other things to program for fun, and an internship / school to keep me busy. I'm strictly curious about our different interpretations of what seems (to me) like an unambiguous spec, and I'm prepared to be totally wrong on my reading of it.