FineLine's blog

Advice regarding Bad Habit of Seeing the solution too early
By FineLine, history, 8 years ago, In English

Hello Codeforces members.. I am a newbie in competitive programming but I have developed bad habit of seeing the solutions in 1-2 days... I really try hard during those 1-2 days devoting 7-8 hours on the day... What should I do.....????????????????? Another habit is to copy-paste the difficult code . Can anyone please help me regarding the same .It will be a great help. Regards.

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8 years ago, # |
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Spending 10+ hours on a problem maybe sounds a bit extravagant. (Assuming the 1-2 days and 7-8 hours is for a problem) For myself, it usually means lacking of a problem solving pattern or I need to learn a related algorithm, not because thinking isn't enough.

Do you have a command of the knowledge required by solving the problem? If not, it would be better to refer to some related learning resources and solve some less comprehensive, easier problems first.

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8 years ago, # |
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Seeing solutions isn't bad at all; especially for newbies. Alright, maybe you shouldn't give up on a problem and see it's solution after like 5 minutes or so. It is better to spend some time in a problem-we usually learn better from a problem that we spend some time on. However, Competitive programming is not as creative as you think; I've noticed that, after a certain level, they become almost routine work. I would advise you to think on a problem until you have no new ideas to solve it, or until you lose the will to think on it.(Usually for me it's around 15-30 minutes) Spending more time on that is of little benefit/no use, and I've seen it myself. Seeing the editorials isn't bad-you will learn from them quite a lot, and these will help you in future problem solving-ideas usually repeat.

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