emo's blog

Problem solving - different points of view
By emo, 15 years ago, In English
In the context of programming contest -

Problem setter has to think - is there any solution?
Problem solver only thinks - it must has a solution, let's try.

So, I think the latter is the easier most of the time.
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15 years ago, # |
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It's not enough for problem setter to find any solution... Ideally he should find all solutions and tweak the constraints in order to not let any of the easier than desired solutions pass. He should also think about possible heuristics and try to break them all.

So, solving a problem is often the easiest part :)
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