wet_water's blog

Getting Faster on Codeforces
By wet_water, history, 5 years ago, In English

Hi all, I have a quick question for the codeforces community.

I was wondering how you all got faster at solving problems in contests. See, I recently took the Div2 contest today and solved A to D with around 25 minutes to spare for problem E ( https://mirror.codeforces.com/problemset/problem/1200/E ). After reading the statement, I knew almost immediately it was a hashing problem and yet I was still unable to solve the problem in time despite the fact that many contestants solved it in a shorter amount of time.

I know that the simple answer to this question is that I should solve more problems. But I feel that there is something more, because I am able to identify the solution but not implement it in time. Any advice for training would be greatly appreciated.

  • Vote: I like it
  • +12
  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (4)
| Write comment?
»
5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by wet_water (previous revision, new revision, compare).

→ Reply
»
5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

For some of the harder problems, it helps to work out a few cases on paper before starting to type a solution, and you can structure your code around the process used to solve those smaller cases on paper. Your work doesn't necessarily need to be highly detailed, just enough for you to understand it. :)

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Thanks for this comment, I actually rarely use a paper in contest. I'll definitely try this.

    → Reply
»
5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Maybe you need to exercise more.

If you know an algorithm called KMP ,then you can slove E easily

→ Reply