Minimum Steps to Achieve Target State

Problem Overview

• Determine the minimum steps to reach a target water distribution across 4 jugs by transferring water without loss.
• Input: count line then 12 values—4 capacities, 4 initial amounts, 4 final amounts; Output: minimum steps or -1 if impossible.
• Constraints: 0 < Ci ≤ 500; 0 < Si, Fi ≤ Ci; Sum(Si) = Sum(Fi).
• Classic water jug domain for state-transition reasoning.
• Asked in Cisco interviews; a common coding interview problem and interview question.