Maximum Sum With Exactly K Elements

You are given a 0-indexed integer array nums and an integer k. Your task is to perform the following operation exactly k times in order to maximize your score:

1. Select an element m from nums.

2. Remove the selected element m from the array.

3. Add a new element with a value of m + 1 to the array.

4. Increase your score by m.

Return the maximum score you can achieve after performing the operation exactly k times.

LeetCode Problem - 2656

class Solution {
    public int maximizeSum(int[] nums, int k) {
        int highestElement = 0; // Initialize a variable to store the highest element in the array

        // Loop through each element in the array to find the highest element
        for(int e : nums) {
            highestElement = Math.max(e, highestElement); // Update highestElement if the current element is greater
        }

        int answer = 0; // Initialize a variable to store the final answer

        // Loop k times to add the highest element and its subsequent values to the answer
        for (int i = 0; i < k; i++) {
            answer += highestElement; // Add the current highest element to the answer
            highestElement++; // Increment the highest element for the next iteration
        }

        return answer; // Return the final answer
    }
}