### Tomzik's blog

By Tomzik, history, 6 months ago, ,

Hello everyone,

When writing algorithms operating on sequences, we need to be precise with how we deal with bounds.

For instance, in C, we usually write loops such as:

  for (i = 0; i < n; i++) { ... }   // exclusive bound


But in other language, we'd write.

   for i = 0 to n - 1   // inclusive bound


Similarly, let say we write a binary search function binary_search(arr, i, j), we need to to decide whether j is included or not.

How do you decide which version to use? Do you try to be consistent or do you decide depending on the problem?

•
• +18
•

By Tomzik, history, 7 months ago, ,

Has anyone here done interviews with Facebook? I know they ask applicants to solve algorithmic problems, how do their problems compare with the ones of codeforces? what type of difficulty to expect? Do you think codeforce is a good training resource or should I look somewhere else?

Thanks!

•
• +26
•

By Tomzik, history, 9 months ago, ,

Finally, I'm blue! I'm looking for advice to keep improving.

I can solve consistently problems A and B, and most of the time C. However, I usually have little time left to address problem D.

I've been working on more difficult problems and algorithms, but I never get to try them in contests as I'm not able to solve A, B, C fast enough. What do you think is a good strategy to improve? should I try to be more fast on the first problems, or should I force myself to work on problem D in the contests?