We study the problem of dividing a multi-layered cake under non-overlapping constraints. This problem, recently proposed by Hosseini et al. (IJCAI, 2020), captures several natural scenarios such as the allocation of multiple facilities over time where each agent can utilize at most one facility simultaneously, and the allocation of tasks over time where each agent can perform at most one task simultaneously. We establish the existence of an envy-free multi-division that is both non-overlapping and connected within each layer when the number of agents is a prime power and the number of layers is at most the number of agents, providing a positive partial answer to an open question by Hosseini et al. To achieve this, we employ a new approach based on a general fixed point theorem, originally proven by Volovikov in 1996, and recently applied by Jojic, Panina, and Zivaljevic (SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 2020) to the envy-free division problem of a cake. We further design a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) to find an approximate envy-free solution that is both non-overlapping and contiguous for a two-layered cake division among three agents with monotone preferences.

More generally, we establish all the results for divisions among groups of almost the same size. When there are three groups and one layer, our FPTAS is actually able to deal with groups of any predetermined sizes, still under the same preference assumptions. For three groups, this provides thus an algorithmic version of a recent theorem by Segal-Halevi and Suksompong (The American Mathematical Monthly, 2021).