I'm not all that proficient with Competitive Coding though I'd like to be .

I've been practising for some time now and before I struggled to solve 1 , now I solve 2 in contests and recently reached 3 star in Codechef

Started reading 10-20 pages of CLRS / Competitive Programmer's handbook every day

But sometimes the elegant solutions elude me . When I read the editorial I get it but don't know why I hadn't thought of it earlier and feel like I'll not get way better :/

Though my knowledge of data structures and algo are slowly improvin , I don't know how to hone my problem solving skills (I practise solvin')

And this is rare because my optimism never diminishes normally .

Have any of you faced this and how did you come out of this "code slump" and any tips on improving codin will be deeply appreciated ?

When normalcy is the only distinction in coding you feel you can reach not heights of greatness

And also , could anyone enlighten me on why my O(nlogn) solution in java failed :( : Subtraction

Thanks for your time , cp and the community are truly awesome :)