death_bringer's blog

Where should I post my doubts ?
By death_bringer, history, 3 years ago, In English

Hi, Codeforces community, I am new to the platform and want to know where should I post doubts for old problems. As I was solving graphs problems I came across some problem for which I was able to find a brute force solution but not the graph-based solution and their editorials have discussed the same brute force solution. So, where/Who should I ask for the graph-based solution because almost everywhere on the internet I can only come across the same brute force solution. Codeforces is warning me not to do necroposting on the old editorials so, I think posting doubts on that editorial is not a good idea.

I'm fixated on solving problems marked as graphs by using graphs, not brute force. So, I can develop my graphs as it is weak and to develop thinking how should graphs can be applied to various situations.

P.S: English is not my primary language. So, please go easy on my grammatical mistakes.

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3 years ago, # |
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Actually while solving problems you could just read the tutorials ... And if you have doubt you can ask in the comment section of the editorial section ... Though there are other ways , I would reccommend you to make new friends out of this community and refer to video editorials for easier understanding of your doubts

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3 years ago, # |
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This majorly is a solo path my friend. You probably would get help for fresh questions in a recent competition, but for old problems it's hard to get an answer.

If you're lucky you might find some friend who is better than you, and you can ask them. But then you will realize you are sending all your problems to them, and not trying hard enough.

Then again, in a competition, if you are unable to solve problem, you can not get any external help. So why practise in a different scenario?

IMHO, you should persist. This is the pattern I follow:

  • Read editorial

  • Read comments in the editorial related to that problem

  • Read comments in the announcement blog for the competition. These sometimes have good discussions in them.

  • Read some one else's submission. I have befriended every one whose code I liked even once. So I find their submissions for problems. They can give a different perspective. Anyways, find the submissions which follow the similar approach as yours. If you can't find, then read anyways.

  • If none of the above works out, I create a blog on codeforces with a catchy title, and try to explain in detail what I am trying to do. If you won't explain it good, people won't even try to help. You need to show effort on your side.

  • If no one replies, try some stack exchange site. Maybe SO, or maybe some debugging stack exchange site. They will hate you for it, but you might get some hints there.

Be a thief. Take help from wherever you can get. Make mistakes, and ask for forgiveness later. It's just the internet.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    • Search the internet. There are some ad hoc blogs (or codeforces blogs too) on the same problem. You might get some hints there too.
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