Hierarchy Banquet Layers
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Hierarchy Banquet Layers
A company is assigning banquet seating layers for one or more office hierarchies. Every employee has either no direct manager, marked as -1, or exactly one direct manager. The reporting data is guaranteed to be a forest, so there are no cycles. A top-level employee sits in layer 1, their direct reports sit in layer 2, and so on. For each hierarchy batch, report the maximum number of layers needed. Input Format: The first line contains t, the number of test cases. Each test case contains n, followed by n lines where the i-th line gives employee i's direct manager or -1. Output Format: For each test case, print the maximum depth of any reporting chain.
Examples
1 5 -1 1 2 1 -1
3
Explanation: Employee 1 manages employee 2, and employee 2 manages employee 3. That chain uses three layers, which is the deepest chain in the batch.
Approach hint
Start with the simplest clear approach, explain the trade-off, then move toward the cleaner answer.
Common mistake
Skipping assumptions, edge cases, or trade-offs can make an otherwise good answer feel incomplete.