Hi Everyone.

I know i shouldn't have written a blog post for this . But since there is no other way . I am doing it here .

I am (like most/or at least some other people here) new to this fantastic world of problem/puzzle solving programming . And i face a very serious problem here.

Most of the time when i start solving a problem. I start coding .. submit it .. and then find out that my solution exceeds the time limit.

For example :

I was participating in the topcoder SRM 504.5 in div 2(obviously). And i was trying to solve the jackpot problem.

the problem statement is at :

http://www.topcoder.com/stat?c=problem_statement&pm=11432

Now during the course of 75 mins i was unable to solve even this basic(now i know) problem, spending all the time to find an effective and fast way to solve it. I was shocked to look at the possible solution . It was straightforward.

highlight to reveal :

while(jackpot>0)
{
sort(ALL(money));
money[0]++;
jackpot--;
}
sort(ALL(money));
return money;



Now most of the people here (red violet yellow and even others)  , i suppose, figure out whether their solution is gonna work or not before they even start coding . They (You - if you can do it too) can figure out the complexity of the problem and given the limits of the input are aware of the effectiveness of their solution.

I have been trying to learn complexity for quite some time. But still hasn't succeeded in it yet. So could please someone of you, take some time of their precious time to explain it in details (with examples) . Or if not could someone please refer blogs, posts or web links of something that can be useful .

I know their are a lot of people out there like me who face the same problem . It would be so grateful of you.

Thanks.