The art of understanding Editorial and Upsolving

Revision en4, by decoder123, 2015-06-20 19:09:59

It's almost a year I am in competitive programming, doing problems here and there. I realized that I have to solve problems to be good at this. Now what happened to me repeatedly is this-

1. Be in a virtual or actual contest.
2. Try hard.
3. I can only solve 1 or 2.
4. Contest ends.
5. Check the editorial for unsolved ones.
6.  **Can not understand the idea or feel confident enough to solve the problem.**
7. Try an hour to understand.
8. Leave it...

I have found that for this reason I an still green and I have to write this. In case of practice problems I take this approach

1. Read the question.
2. Understand and try to solve.(I try exactly for 10-15 mins..)**(Is this correct or should I try longer?)**
3. If I can't solve then I read the editorial.
4. Can not understand the idea or feel confident enough to solve the problem. 
5. Try an hour to understand.
6. Leave it...

The problem is similar here also.

My question is

1. What should I do? I mean is there any strategy to overcome this (How can I understand editorials)?
2. How much time should I give to a practice problem?

I am trying to search answer of this questions for probably a year. I want to grow but how can I if I don't understand the editorials? I want to know the art and be a "RED" someday. [For example I can't understand the #509C and #156C (div2) problems editorials..these are only the last 2 of hundreds of editorial I have read in a year.]

Note: I accidentally discarded this blog few minutes ago. Sorry for that. The coders/members of codeforces are requested to look into this blog.

Tags problem solving, editorial, practice, upsolving

History

 
 
 
 
Revisions
 
 
  Rev. Lang. By When Δ Comment
en6 English decoder123 2015-06-20 20:49:38 144
en5 English decoder123 2015-06-20 19:29:43 3 Tiny change: 'swer of this questions' -> 'swer of these questions'
en4 English decoder123 2015-06-20 19:09:59 41 Tiny change: 'e also. \n1. What ' -
en3 English decoder123 2015-06-20 18:56:04 8
en2 English decoder123 2015-06-20 18:20:58 144
en1 English decoder123 2015-06-20 18:18:05 1546 Initial revision (published)