MisterTester's blog

Novice question — How much competitive problem solution depends on insight?
By MisterTester, history, 4 years ago, In English

Hello everyone, I've just joined code forces community. And I have a question that I couldn't find answer on this site.

How much problem solution depends on insight for you? How much it depends on determining proper template to apply? (i.e dp, counting sort etc.)

I.e how many tasks you are solving just by applying familiar template? And how many require you to invent something completely new?

Should you train invention part by solving problems you don't know template for? Or should you focus on learning more algorithms instead?

I think answer is interesting for many newcomers. Please share your experience.

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4 years ago, # |
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I've found it to be getting the correct insight to know which technique to apply. While some concepts and techniques are common, to get there you usually should make some clever insights on the nature of the inputs and the constraints, in my opinion.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thank you for sharing your experience.

    The question is if "clever insights" could be trained to any level given enough effort? Or is it limited certain level ("talent" factor)?

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      I get what you're trynna ask. You're wondering whether this site is basically talent or training. I'm well aware that by training you can learn to recognize many of the mentioned clever insights. I also know that many people train long with little to no results, while others do less training with more results. Not sure what the balance is, or which between intellect and practice is the ultimate defining factor, but I can assure you that at the levels of specialist-expert, you can get very far using either or both.

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4 years ago, # |
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I would say, at least to start with, it is mainly insight. If you look at the editorials for recent contests you will see, at least for division 2 or 3 contests, maybe one or two problems (typically the more difficult ones) that mention particular standard algorithms or data structures as part of the solution. The educational rounds possibly use more standard algorithms, but even in these get quite a way without any advanced algorithms.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Don't downvote Aberent, please. Give it to me instead.

    I found proposed approach very useful. I checked few editorial solutions and looked if they start with some observation, that simpilfies initial task.

    So I can collect statistics on how much insights are required by my own. The other quistion remaining is how to train insight.

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