I just mixed up two very similar tasks. We're still dealing with sticks. Here is the code for 4 and 5 sticks
if t ==4: max = 0 sum1 = 0 sum2=0 sum3=0 for h in range(len(d)-1): for b in range(1,len(d)-1): sum1 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(0,h+1)) sum2 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(h+1,b+1)) sum3 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(b+1,len(d))) if max < min(sum1, sum2, sum3): max = min(sum1, sum2, sum3) elif t == 5: max = 0 sum1 = 0 sum2 = 0 sum3 = 0 sum4 = 0 for k in range(len(d)-1): for l in range(1,len(d)-1): for m in range(2,len(d)-1): sum1 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(0, k+1)) sum2 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(k+1, l+1)) sum3 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(l+1,m+1 )) sum4 = sum(int(d[m]) for m in range(m+1, int(len(d)))) if max < min(sum1, sum2, sum3,sum4): max = min(sum1, sum2, sum3,sum4) print(max)