We need to find the least number of perfect squares that sum up to a given number. With problems like this, the brute-force method seems to lean towards iterating through all the possible numbers and performing some operation at each step.

It seems from the get-go that we'll need to find all the perfect squares available to us before we reach the specified number in an iteration.

This means if the number is 30, we'll start at 1, then 2, and conduct a logical step at each number. But what logic do we need? Well, if we're given a number-- say, 100, how would we manually solve this problem and find the perfect squares that sum up to 100?

Like we said, we'd probably just start with 1 and get its perfect square. Then we'll move on to 2, and get the perfect square of 4. But in this case, we'll keep summing as we calculate each square. Mathematically speaking, it would look like:

xxxxxxxxxx

// while (1*1) + (2*2) + (3*3) + (4*4) + ... <= 100