prokulijander's blog

Segment tree for IOI?
By prokulijander, history, 6 hours ago, In English

I go to IOI without knowing to code segment tree.

Edit: Someone else posted this using my laptop while I was gone. Still, it's not far away from the truth.

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5 hours ago, # |
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I think you should learn it

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5 hours ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by prokulijander (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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4 hours ago, # |
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While it is true in general that you should probably learn it, I think you will be fine. Ability to solve problems (and use binary search) beats knowing any particular data structure or algorithm every day.

Good luck on the IOI!

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    3 hours ago, # ^ |
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    binary search for the WIN!

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    101 minute(s) ago, # ^ |
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    Yes, but olimpiad problems usually require data structures just to finish the problem, and many are probably impossible without them.

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      88 minutes ago, # ^ |
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      Worst case scenario you lose maybe 30-40 points in 2 problems. That's not nothing, but it's not the end of the world either. You will lose many more points if you are bad at solving problems.

      I would bet I would perform at a high silver / low gold level if I could only use STL data structures.

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        64 minutes ago, # ^ |
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        Yes, definetly, but those 40 points are basically free for other competitors, and it takes much more time to learn to solve problems better then to learn regular segment tree, also behind every DS are many clever ideas that can be used in many problems. I dont doubt you would get gold on IOI with just stl, but your problem solving skills are light years away from average IOI competitors and probably because you did problem solving for longer than they were alive (not an insult)

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