DottedCalculator's blog

By DottedCalculator, history, 12 months ago, In English

Since I just achieved the rank of specialist in the first contest of 2024, I decided to make another AMA. Please use common sense before posting here.

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12 months ago, # |
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What is 672+1586-1586?

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12 months ago, # |
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Is 561 a prime ?

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    12 months ago, # ^ |
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    not in $$$\mathbb Z$$$ since $$$561=3\cdot11\cdot17$$$

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      11 months ago, # ^ |
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      Z sign is for intergers, isn't it?

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    12 months ago, # ^ |
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    No sum of its digits is divisible by 3, then the whole number is divisible by 3.

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12 months ago, # |
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Do you have a girlfriend?

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how many time have you listened to this song?

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12 months ago, # |
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bitset?

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12 months ago, # |
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do you like cookies?

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12 months ago, # |
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I also used to write posts like these when I was specialist. A wise man said, "I will ask u when u become an expert". But now, nobody asks me anything

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    12 months ago, # ^ |
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    when cm?

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    I will ask u when you and I become CMs

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    Hi, can you look at my graph, and give me some tips for reaching an expert? How should i go about solving problems , i don't have the confidence to go beyond the second question , coz it gets so hard , in Div 2s

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12 months ago, # |
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Congratulations on becoming specialist. Wishing you good luck on your journey to pupil

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12 months ago, # |
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What's your choice?
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11 months ago, # |
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Are you DottedCaculator from Alcumus? I'm not stalking, I swear, but I remember seeing your username on the Alcumus hall of fame once and I could never forget how it was missing an 'l'.

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    possibly

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    Damn coincidences on the internet :) Just found his comments in the live chat of Evan Chen solving CF1628C on an old live stream. Guy has too much math-connections. It must be him. Also his blog on an IMO problem.

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11 months ago, # |
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Observe my codeforces activity and tell me how to be a specialist

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    Something helped me to get to specialist: so have these 2 extensions installed(I'll tell u why rn): Cf Analytics, CodeForces Practice Tracker

    After that open your profile, and you'll see a red tab named statics, will get to that later scroll down under your rating graph you should have smth like this:(it's your graph btw)

    Spoiler

    As you can see here, you do a lot of questions but mainly 800 and haven't done almost anything more than 1400, that's bad my friend, Now go to the red statics tab, and you'll see your avg problem rating in the last week, if you wanna get to a rating s.t: 1400 try to have it average around 1300-1500, quality not quantity Do this for like 2weeks, also don't spoil the question by opening the tutorial, spent days, papers anything, but do it yourself for the questions: go to problemset, Filter from 1200 to 1600, with these tags: math, greedy, constructive, number theory, implementation, brute force, games, combinatorics and work on them Good luck my friends

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      11 months ago, # ^ |
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      I have 2 questions

      1.I cant get a clue how to solve them even if i get some hint i still dont know what to use 2.i sometimes struggle lower rating still So shall i stop solving less than 1200?

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        11 months ago, # ^ |
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        for Q1: Editorial is forbidden, but if you've tried your absolute hardest and couldn't find a way, tried different ideas and non worked maybe it needs something you don't know, so after a lot of hard work feel free to check the editorial

        for Q2: Something I do is I don't care when to AC, I might AC div2.A at 5/6min something I try to do is prove the solution 100% Try it and see if it works, look for flaws. Like even if when I see the question I instantly get the idea, idc, I'll prove it recommend this too and no don't stop, like if u think you still have problem, instead of 1200-1600, do 1000-1400, till u get good at them

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          11 months ago, # ^ |
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          suppose this problem

          https://mirror.codeforces.com/contest/1916/problem/C

          Now i couldn't realize why i have to divide 3. To solve this kind of problem what should i do?

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            11 months ago, # ^ |
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            I'm assuming you got the idea of prefix sum, which is good. So By now, you should think about what happens if I choose 2 items and insert sum/2 and you see the divide by 2 and after a while of thinking you'll get the idea of what happens if they're both odd, even, and different parity then try and see that oh, in different parity it benefits the first player so if the second player removes 2 odds at a time it'll be more beneficial, take this path and go to the answer

            and as I said don't wait for a divine inspiration, take out a piece of paper and do the work this will help you, specially in math based problems, like for math/number theory/ combinatorics just take that damn piece of paper and do the work it's hard at first but you'll get used to it the key, secret answer is a pen and a paper, not a virtual white board, text editor, something you can feel

            and for questions with programming ideas not mathematical ideas, just try every think and still use papers

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          11 months ago, # ^ |
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          You say that editorials should be used as the very last resort in problem solving. Is that opinion based on your experience? If that is so, and reading editorials does slow down your learning process, then how to deal with the frustration of inability to solve a problem?

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            11 months ago, # ^ |
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            Reading editorials doesn't slow it down, they aren't as much beneficial there are many things you learn while thinking about a problem you may even find a solution to another problem while thinking about this

            And about the frustration, I actually don't have an always working solution, go play a game, take a nap, rest, or just motivate yourself by something

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              11 months ago, # ^ |
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              any tips for me? my activity is kinda messed up

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      11 months ago, # ^ |
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      Hello , Can you give me some suggestions to practice to get myself around 1400 ? I using , this method : sorted the latest problem upto max 1200 rating , and solving it ,will it work or I should solved by descending the highets number of submissions?

      Pls suggest!

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    solve problems when you see them

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are you drawing sth on your profile ?

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Are you for real?

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11 months ago, # |
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Imagine a situation .. u have 20 bucks and I have 20 bucks . WE club them together and we have a pool of 40 bucks . Now I buy ur 40 bucks for 30 bucks. So at the end I have 40 bucks and u have 30 buck . we made a total profit of 10 bucks each . Who is wrong here ?

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11 months ago, # |
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what you do after a wrong answer on test 2?!

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    Say F***, And then check my algorithm, if you didn't prove it, but just thought it's reasonable and correct, prove it, if could: check your code, else: come up with another algorithm on a paper IMPORTANT: pen and a paper will 11 times out of 10 work better than code editors

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    11 months ago, # ^ |
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    solve the problem

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I am a specialist too. Can you ask me something?

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11 months ago, # |
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what is the difference between int and long long

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but you were an expert before that ...

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how can i reach pupil :( can you help

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What's your type in women

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10 months ago, # |
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