### rm17's blog

By rm17, history, 2 months ago,

I've been confused, whenever i see a question, that if i can apply binary search on answer to solve this, leading to WASTAGE OF TIME during contests. If there is any particular hint that gives away whether I can apply BAA or not.

• +4

 » 2 months ago, # | ← Rev. 2 →   +3 To be able to binary search for an answer, you should know that:If some value $x$ doesn't satisfy the requirements for an answer, then all values lower than $x$ (or greater than $x$, depending on the question) doesn't also satisfy the requirements.AFAIK it's formally called a monotonic function. Definitely not a professional on CP but from what I've seen I can say that plenty of interactive questions or some "minimum number of operations that satisfy the requirements" involve binary search. As for Codeforces, the first three Div. 2 problems doesn't involve too many BS questions. Other than that, I can say that if there's an array that you can apply sliding window, you can combine these two techniques together, it's not uncommon.
 » 2 months ago, # |   0 I also feel the same way. I in most problems notice the monotonicity but can't figure out how to make the check function ( if condition). And in most questions under the problemset under tag binary search I solve without using it. Please can some share their thoughts and give some advice. And also if possible please share some beginner friendly pure bs problems