A – Repeat ACL
Easy programming-language-knowledge check typical of the first task of AtCoder beginner contests. The following is a passing Kotlin submission:
fun main() {
val k = readLine()!!.toInt()
val ans = "ACL".repeat(k)
println(ans)
}
B – Integer Preference
Assume there is an integer in both ranges and call it $$$x$$$. Note that both $$$x \ge \max(A, C)$$$ and $$$x \le \min(B, D)$$$ must therefore be true.
Thus $$$x$$$ exists if and only if $$$\max(A, C) \le \min(B, D)$$$ is true. This is the standard formula for finding the overlap of two ranges.
C – Connect Cities
Note that the initial network of cities can be divided into one or more components, where any city of a component can reach any other city in that component following roads, but there are no roads connecting components together.
If there are $$$c$$$ components, Snuke can connect two of them by choosing one city from each component and building a road between them, which combines them to a single component; so the answer would be $$$c - 1$$$.
Components can be found using breadth-first/depth-first searches, however there's an easier way if you already have a special data structure known as DSU (disjoint-set union). And there is an implementation available right in the AtCoder library. So start with $$$c := N$$$, for each road given in the input, you can use same
to check if the vertices are already connected; if there isn't, merge
them and decrement $$$c$$$.
Note that though the input is $$$1$$$-indexed, the AtCoder DSU implementation is $$$0$$$-indexed.
D – TODO
Can be done with basic dynamic programming. Let $$$dp_i$$$ represent the number of sequences whose sum is $$$i$$$. $$$dp_0 = 1$$$, the empty sequence. Then $$$\displaystyle dp_i = \sum_{j=0}^{i-3} dp_j$$$, i.e. the sum of $$$dp_j$$$ for all integers $$$j$$$ between $$$0$$$ and $$$i-3$$$ inclusive, representing the addition of a number $$$\ge 3$$$ to each of the previous sequences. The final answer, naturally, is $$$dp_s$$$.
This can be easily calculated in $$$O(s^2)$$$, which is good enough to pass, however it can be improved to $$$O(s)$$$ by accumulating the prefix sum.
An $$$O(\log s)$$$ solution is possible via matrix exponentiation.
E – TODO
We can take the following approach — for each $$$i$$$ from $$$2$$$ to $$$n$$$, try to match $$$(x_i, y_i)$$$ with the "best" previous point $$$(x_j, y_j), 1 \le j < i$$$, then update the answer.
Testing all previous points is too slow ($$$O(n^2)$$$). However, it is sufficient only to keep up to $$$4$$$ previous points to test against. $$$2$$$ of those points are the maximal and minimal of the "score" $$$x_i + y_i$$$, while the other $$$2$$$ maximize and minimize $$$x_i - y_i$$$
Why? Note that taking any point as the center, the set of points with Manhattan distance some arbitrary constant $$$d$$$, forms a "diamond" shape, i.e. a square rotated 45 degrees. Thus the furthest point must lie on at least one of the four sides of this square when $$$d$$$ is maximized. As the sides are on lines with equations of $$$x+y = C$$$ or $$$x-y = C$$$, the maximums and minimums of these values are sufficient to find the furthest point in each of the 4 possible directions.
Thus we have a solution in $$$O(n)$$$.