What do you do after reading the editorial and not understanding?
source link: http://codeforces.com/blog/entry/105472
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Hello, I was introduced to CP a few months back by a friend, and from then to now I would message him any questions I had. Of course, it's not a good habit to rely on others, and nowadays I don't want to bother him because I'm no longer a true beginner(although my skill says otherwise). I'm not sure why, but I find editorials too lacking when it comes to explanations through words, as many solutions write things like, "We approach this problem greedily" and then jumps straight into math equations. Greedy is too broad of a subject for someone as bad as me, and I would like to see more logic and motivation behind these solutions. Maybe I'm just really horrible at understanding things, but I'd like to find a way to improve and understand how to solve these problems I'm stuck on without bothering anyone. Any suggestions?
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I agree to you that the editorials are often shorter than I want them to be. I can share you my way to overcome such a difficulties. At first, when I can't clearly understand some sentence something I am trying to came up with this idea myself. I am reading all before that I understood well earlier and trying to solve problem myself from this place as if I am at contest now but I got some hints that are in that part of editorial I can understand well. Okay but there whatever will be situations when you can't figure out with a problem yourself and that's normal. Don't be afraid to ask — ask for your friends or if you don't wanna bother them — ask on codeforces. The good way to do this is to ask in comments from editorial. There will be people that help you with a high probability if there is an recent contest and maybe you will got a help even the contest was for a long time ago. If no one have seen your comment you can write a blog with your question and you can trust me — there will be exactly a people that don't skip your blog and will help you. There are no any bad in asking questions — competitive programming community should help itself members and it's a right practice. Okay maybe some people will give your negative for your help request but don't take it seriously. All the people are different someone will like your blog someone no but there are no any bad for asking help — know it, and know that there exactly will be some people who think the same and will help you. So finally my advice to you is such like this — try to do all yourself but if you meet a really difficulties don't be afraid to ask a help (for example at the codeforces). That's normal. Good luck ! |
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Thank you for your advice! You've once again reminded me that contribution is simply just an opinion of how the community views you overall, and not really if you contributed anything. I'll keep that in mind and I will try and not hesitate to make a blog entry if I'm stuck on another problem.
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10 days ago, # | I read the editorial again. |
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10 days ago, # | After reading the editorial, think more about the problem and try to understand how you can come to the solution. If you still don't understand it try reading someone's AC code to see if that helps you realize the logic. If it still doesn't make sense, you should find an easier problem. I think doing problems where you need to read editorial often is good as you can learn new tricks/techniques from them, but if you can't even understand the editorial you need to do easier problems. |
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The problem being too hard for me could be the case, but what tends to happen is that when I get someone to break down the solution(without teaching me anything new), it just comes naturally to me, and when I read the editorial, it no longer seems confusing. I just feel like in an effort to formalize everything, some editorials just have too much math and mathematical definitions, which makes it harder for a grey coder like me to understand especially for problems that are about my rating(1000-1100).
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Well in my case it depends on several factors but in my opinion editorials are not meant for everybody (well most of them at least) only for people that understand the problem and were just few steps from solving the problem. I evaluate how close I was to solve the problem, if I wasn't even close I don't even bother with the editorial because I know I will not understand it. (Edited) PS: I do it alone if I had people to discuss the problems with I'd probably do that as often as I could. You don't have to ask for the answer just sharing the things you've done and discussing what interesting possible next steps you could take should be enjoyable for you an the friend that introduced you to CP both. |
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I think this is also useful and I forgot to mention it in my previous comment, the editorial also comes with the source code for the solution, you can take it and use it to generate your own testcases to see where your approach fails. This is quite helpful to understand the nature of the problem and you can do it without having to understand the editorial.
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26 hours ago, # | I was introduced to cp by my friend jigyansu nanda nearly 1year back. Started doing cp nearly 7 months back. Till now every time, if i am stuck in any questions, i bother him..he is hard-core cp lover, lots of my mistakes are corrected by him. I think one need to have a coding partner, as i have, for a new commer that makes lots of things easier. And for those who are not newcomers, it may boost your competitive spirit, I can remember thousands thousands time jigyansu helped me while I'm stuck in any problem. Its better to get help as long as you are not able to help yourself. At the same time try to read again and again to understand on yourself, but initially if it's taking too much time i would say there is no shame in taking help. |
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24 hours ago, # | You might want to dive into comments of the editorial, frequently there I find better (better explained also) solutions than author's. |
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