I am an engineering student(EE) , and I am familiar with high school math as well as the applied mathematics(thats what typically taught in an engineering degree). I am curious how much mathematical knowledge do I need to to prove the solutions/ideas and its correctness. I am familiar with basic proving techniques like, direct proof through the logic, proof by induction, proof by contradiction. But I have only studied them for the class so I cant really say I am well versed with them and may get stuck while proving some good problems.
My aim is to reach to expert or candidate master level. So which type of mathematical concepts frequently occurs in the problems of these rating ranges, and what level of mathematical maturity and proofs do I need for them so that I can efficiently solve these problems to reach to my desired level.
Thanks.
refer pranav A. sriram Combinatorics
Math is not enough. Learn algorithm (especially graph theory)
I'm learning it. But while solving the problems I see that the solution of almost every problem uses some kind of proof that why this idea works, specially problems related to DP, graph theory, constructive algorithms, greedy etc. So I thought I should learn it, how to prove an idea/solution that it will always work given the constraints.
You may not need to be good at math but need to be good at imagination
at a beginner level, you require knowledge about induction(strong/weak) and logic(to some extent). After that it's just practice. The more proofs you do for solutions/algorithms the better you get at proving.