TheScrasse's blog

By TheScrasse, history, 13 months ago, In English

The official implementations of all the problems are here.

Timeline of the round proposal (may contain spoilers)

1909A - Distinct Buttons

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Solution

1909B - Make Almost Equal With Mod

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution

1909C - Heavy Intervals

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution

1909D - Split Plus K

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution

1909E - Multiple Lamps

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4
Solution

1909F1 - Small Permutation Problem (Easy Version), 1909F2 - Small Permutation Problem (Hard Version)

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4
Solution

1909G - Pumping Lemma

Author: TheScrasse
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4
Hint 5
Solution

1909H - Parallel Swaps Sort

Author: TheScrasse
Full solution: Endagorion, errorgorn
Preparation: TheScrasse, francesco

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4
Hint 5
Hint 6
Hint 7
Hint 8
Hint 9
Hint 10
Hint 11
Hint 12
Solution

1909I - Short Permutation Problem

Author: TheScrasse
Full solution: errorgorn
Preparation: TheScrasse

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4
Hint 5
Hint 6
Solution
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13 months ago, # |
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Thanks for the fast editorial!

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13 months ago, # |
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del

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Wrong.

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      gcd * 2?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        Wrong (I tried it)

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          Sort the array and take the GCD of the difference of consecutive elements, then multiply it by 2.

          AC Submission : 238522780

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            I think we need not sort the array, directly taking GCD of absolute value of difference of consecutive element , then multiplying by 2, will be sufficient.

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            12 months ago, # ^ |
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            why the difference?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        gcd tried it its wrong

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          Hi I also saw a code of gcd*2

          Can you explain the proof/intuition of gcd*2?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Wrong for case :

    4

    4 8 12 16

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    5

    1000 2000 7000 11000 16000

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    You have to check for all the powers of 2, i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 ... Proof lies in the bitmasking

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13 months ago, # |
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Thanks for the quick editorial. I will probably become expert in this round. Thanks.

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13 months ago, # |
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Can someone explain why this solution receives TLE? I assumed that the time complexity would simply be O(nlogn): 238557809

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    That's because you've used

    upper_bound(r.begin(), r.end(), l[i]);
    

    instead of

    r.upper_bound(r[i]);
    

    The first one works in $$$O(n)$$$ and the second one in $$$O(log\;n)$$$ where $$$n$$$ is the size of the set. This is due to the fact that the first function is a generic function that works with any container and is guaranteed to work in $$$O(log\;n)$$$ only if the container supports random access (std::set doesn't support random access), while the second one is a specific function designed only for sets and is guaranteed to have good complexity. You can refer to the documentation in case you're confused:

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      Ah, unfortunate. Thanks for the insight!

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      I have basically the same code and I did use r.upper_bound, but I still get TLE: 238528720. Did I perhaps get constant factored?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        I think I did get constant factored :( Instead of storing the segment in a vector<pair<int, int>>, I removed this intermediate step and stored the length of the interval in a vector<int> directly and it passed 238595993. I don't understand why this would impact the time factor; I thought this would only cost a bit more memory.

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    I think to find upper bound on set r, you should use r.upper_bound(x), not upper_bound(r.begin(), r.end(), x)

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13 months ago, # |
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I Feel so stupid for not getting B in an hour

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13 months ago, # |
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MathForce. All problems have math tags.

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    idk why but pinely and codeton rounds are biased towards number theory and maths

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13 months ago, # |
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Great round. Thanks for fast editorial

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13 months ago, # |
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238549718 why does my soln of B work?

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13 months ago, # |
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I have a different solution for H so I'll leave it here.

Let's assume $$$N$$$ is even. Consider $$$N$$$ operations $$$(1,N),(2,N-1),(1,N),\cdots,(2,N-1)$$$. These operations reverse the whole permutation. For odd $$$N$$$, one can do similar operations.

During this reversing process, every pair of numbers become adjacent at some moment. Therefore we can "insert" adjacent-swap operations to achieve the arbitrary-swap operation in the final array.

The pitfall is that when we try to do multiple arbitrary swaps, they can interfere with each other during the reversing process. However, if the target permutation has a matching structure, there are no worries about interference.

Then, remember that we can obtain any permutation by composing two appropriate matching permutations. Therefore by repeating the reverse-and-swap process twice one can sort the input permutation.

The time complexity is $$$O(N)$$$ and it's better than the intended solution. However, the number of moves is $$$3N+const$$$ and it's worse than $$$2N$$$. I'm so glad that the author didn't ask me to optimize this constant. (By the way, I'm wondering if it's possible to achieve a better constant factor with my approach.)

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13 months ago, # |
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I solved B ..By getting gcd of all v[x]-v[x-1] and multiply it by 2

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    can you explain ,thank you

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      first, every number % gcd would be same.

      second, if every number % (gcd * 2) would be same, then gcd will not be gcd, it should be at least 2 * gcd.

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        can u pls explain in detail

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          for example,

          7 10 16

          the gcd of the difference is 3

          So we know that after mod 3, they will be same. i.e. 1 1 1

          If we look at gcd * 2, i.e. 6. we can see the result would be 1 4 4. There could be only two elements in it. Also, if everything are still the same, then we must be have a wrong gcd in the first step.

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            got that tnx!!

            But how u got intuition of that solution

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              11 months ago, # ^ |
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              can you help me understand, why taking the gcd of difference works ?

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                7 months ago, # ^ |
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                if a mod m == b mod m==c then a-b of all must have gcd as m

                proof:a=km+c and b=k1m+c==>a-b ==factor of m that means a-b must have m as factor ..it must be also greatest because of the greatest common divisor

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            nice explanation I want to add that this rule will help in understanding this approach

            if a % k == b % k then (a-b)%k==0

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        its not correct

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          it works when you do the GCD of the Difference Arrays only as mentioned in the main comment

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            Oh I thought I made it clear. The gcd in my comment means the gcd mentioned in mostafaabdelaal_03's comment, which is the gcd of the difference.

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          Can you provide a case?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        Hello, Sorry if my doubt sounds dumb but I agree that everynumber%(gcd*2) won't be the same but how can you claim that those "not same" %(gcd*2)s will be "same" as there have to be exactly 2 numbers one would be those who are still %(gcd*2)==0 and the other ones who are not zero but how can you claim that the other ones who are not zero will be equal

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          let's say every number mod gcd is x, i.e. a[i] = x + num * gcd for some integer num

          then everything mod 2 * gcd would be either x, or x + gcd.

          This is because when num is even, a[i] % (2 * gcd) would be still x,

          when num is odd, a[i] % (2 * gcd) would be x + gcd

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            Understood! Thanks for your time

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            11 months ago, # ^ |
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            thank you for the explanation

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    i was trying a similar approach but got stuck...please explain

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    2 months ago, # ^ |
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    This blew my mind.

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13 months ago, # |
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In problem D, when we are doing operations on a[i]and want to make it to "tar". You are just doing partitioning. Won't there be cases where we partition a[i] into y, a[i]+k-y, and then recursively do operations on both of them?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Think about adding operation as ratios, and I can spread the total sum among all of the buckets I produce (from that ai) however I want.

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13 months ago, # |
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The amount of effort that went into this round is insane, the timeline doesn't really do it justice. Kudos to TheScrasse for never settling on anything less than perfect, and errorgorn for coordinating this extremely demanding set. This turned out to be one of the most quality rounds in my recent memory!

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Thanks a lot for the solution of problem H! It's my favorite problem in this contest, but I don't deserve the merit because you've solved it :)

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      That makes two of us for the favourite problem part. =) Coming up with a concept this interesting is surely worth of the problemsetter's merit. I was glad to contribute, and had much fun thinking about this excellent problem some more.

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13 months ago, # |
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Thank you very much for fast Tutorial! I dream of seeing an analysis of the problem D. Thank you for this good round!

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13 months ago, # |
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How to solve F1 with combinatorics?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    A way to think of this is to maintain the invariant that the difference of p between consecutive elements in front of the ith element is correct and also to satisfy the current consecutive difference. Denote unallocated elements smaller than i as k.

    If we want to make a consecutive difference of 2, we must assign the current largest element in previous k-1 vacant place, and place any of other k-1 element in current place which is (k-1)*(k-1) ways. Note that placing the current largest element in front of ith element will not break the difference invariant.

    If we want to make a consecutive difference of 1, we can either put the current largest in the previous k-1 vacancy or place any of current k element in current place. This results in 2k-1 ways. As mentioned before, placing the current largest element in front of ith element will not break the invariant.

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13 months ago, # |
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can someone please explain first three lines of solution of problem D ?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    let's forget array and assume that we have to deal with single element.

    if this element is greater than k say (k+x),now in one operation we have to find 2 number a,b such that a+b=(k)+(k+x), to reduce complexity of question we are doing this trick

    a+b=(k)+(k+x)=> (a-k)+(b-k)=(0)+(x)

    we don't care about final number we care about how many operation so we reduce all number by k so our operation changed in select number and break it such in two number such that sum is our x((k+x)-(k)).

    in short after reducing by k we don't have to deal with k;)

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13 months ago, # |
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All the problems were great and overall the contest was very enjoyable to solve. Thank you for such a good round!

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13 months ago, # |
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Worst contest for me so far. Didnt solve any. For who wants to see pure pain:

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    a countertest for 238559680?

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      Consider cases where x = 0.

      If a special point is at x = 0, y = 1, what does your logic do? What is it supposed to do?

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13 months ago, # |
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Story timeline of the round was something new and quite interesting, I enjoyed it.

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In question C I have a test case : 5 1 2 3 6 7 3 4 5 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 in which many got answer 14 and 18. according to me answer is 18 as 14 is not possible please comment on it.

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Will it be added to the system tests and the final standing will differ or will be ignored? TheScrasse

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      That test case is invalid because the endpoints are not distinct.

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13 months ago, # |
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I was trying to find some cheaters of contest and found this...

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13 months ago, # |
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In the editorial of problem D(solution section),

Shouldn't it be "replace y with x+y" instead of "replace x with y+z"

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13 months ago, # |
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B in O(n): $$$\large 2^{ctz((a_1 \land \cdots \land a_n)\oplus(a_1 \lor \cdots \lor a_n))}$$$

238596786

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13 months ago, # |
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Can anyone explain the concept behind problem D.I didnt understand the editorial

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    +1

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Assume we create a new board $$$B$$$, on which for each number $$$x$$$ written on our original board (call it $$$A$$$), we write the number $$$x - k$$$ on $$$B$$$. Then, let's try seeing what our operation does. So, since $$$y + z = x + k \implies (y - k) + (z - k) = (x - k)$$$ (for the original board), and since we've written $$$y - k, z - k$$$ on our modified board instead of $$$x - k$$$, this gives the observation that on $$$B$$$, our operation just corresponds to replacing $$$x^{*}$$$ by two numbers $$$y^{*}, z^{*}$$$ such that $$$x^{*} = y^{*} + z^{*}$$$. Then, solving this reduced problem is pretty easy (for implementation purposes, just subtract $$$k$$$ from each element of $$$a$$$, and do the calculations on that itself).

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13 months ago, # |
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spoilers make the whole text unreadable

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13 months ago, # |
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writing complexity at the end of an editorial is cringe

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problem B was really something...

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    it was easy

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      can u explain editorial?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        well it is kind of obvious intuition you get once u see 2 distinct values modulo some k you think of 2 since only two values are possible however then you remmeber all values might be pair hence there is only one value and then this amazing idea gets to u about the next power of 2 which is 4 well since the numbers were allwith the same parity they have only 2 values possible (pair numbers possible values are 2 or 4 and impairs values are 1 and 3) and then again there is possiblity that they all have same value time to check 8 again only 2 values are possible, you can conlcude that the sol requires checking all powers of 2,genius,see this much easier than what the editorial makes it look like.By the way i just guided you trough how the logical thinking went in my brain

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13 months ago, # |
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TheScrasse How does the grader for H work?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Link to comment

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      (Nvm, this is wrong if you run it on a decreasing array.)

      By the way, isn't the number of moves for the editorial solution actually bounded above by $$$3n/2$$$? Since the number of moves during the second phase is at most the number of Bs after the first phase, which is at most $$$n/2$$$ due to there being no two consecutive Bs and the last letter being an A.

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      Also curious about these:

      • Were you aware of a solution to H that made $$$3n$$$ operations before the contest? Or did the limits just happen to be large enough to allow that to pass?

      • What was the original solution to H with $$$O(n\log n)$$$ operations?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        H with $$$O(n \log n)$$$ operations sounds like a considerably more boring problem, as I believe you can simply simulate merge sort: suppose the right part starts at $$$x$$$, then you can use operations on $$$[x-1,x]$$$, $$$[x-2, x+1]$$$ etc to create a train of moving elements from right to left, and you remove elements from the train when they reach their final positions.

        Other than the very annoying implementation, H with $$$O(n)$$$ operations is a work of art :)

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          Hm, I don't fully understand.

          By merge sort, do you mean that given two sorted arrays on consecutive ranges, you can merge them into one sorted array?

          If you do operations on $$$[x-1,x], [x-2,x+1], [x-3,x+2], \dots$$$ then this will move some elements right to left over $$$x$$$ and others left to right over $$$x$$$. But how are you removing elements when they reach their final positions? What if there's some element in the middle of the train that you don't want to keep moving?

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            Here's how I did it: imagine inserting just the rightmost element $$$a_i$$$ of the left half with $$$[x - 1, x]$$$ operations. $$$a_{i - 1}$$$ can trail behind two positions away for free simply by extending the segments to the left (skipping the first one). We stop the trail early if $$$a_{i - 1}$$$ doesn't need to go that far, and proceed to $$$a_{i - 2}$$$. Final case is if $$$a_{i - 1}$$$ needs land next to $$$a_i$$$, in which case we add one more swap at the end to achieve that.

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              13 months ago, # ^ |
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              I agree about $$$a_i$$$ and $$$a_{i-1}$$$, but what if $$$a_{i-2}$$$ and $$$a_i$$$ need to keep moving to the right but you don't want $$$a_{i-1}$$$ to keep moving to the right?

              It's true that $$$a_i$$$ must move at least as far right as $$$a_{i-1}$$$, but once you take into account the fact that $$$a_{i-1}$$$ must trail two spaces behind $$$a_i$$$ to move them rightward at the same speed, this is no longer true.

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                13 months ago, # ^ |
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                For $$$a_{i - 2}$$$ we can forget what $$$a_i$$$ does, and focus on operations moving $$$a_{i - 1}$$$. Since they don't want to swap, the same logic keeps applying.

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        • I was not aware of any linear solution other than the official one. I didn't put $$$2n$$$ as the operation limit to avoid spoilers.
        • The original solution was "put the $$$n/2$$$ smallest elements in the left half of the array in $$$O(n)$$$ operations, then recurse". Some testers found the "merge sort" solution explained by ffao.
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13 months ago, # |
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Can somebody please explain why my solution of problem C — Heavy Intervals does not work

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    In test case l=[1,2,3], r=[10,12,13], c=[1,1,100] it's best to pair (3,10)*100, but in your solution c=100 is multiplied by 10

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13 months ago, # |
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Very well written editorial! Excellent hints that actually do help a lot if we don't want to see the full solution. Thank you TheScrasse for the good contest and the great editorial.

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13 months ago, # |
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problem D is very nice!

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The subtasks of F is helpful for some but also misleading many participants including me :(

anyways, good problems and good contest

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13 months ago, # |
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In E, I only understand this phrase in the statement after reading editorial:

If you press the button ui, you also have to press the button vi,(at any moment, not necessarily after pressing the button ui)

It's my fault to not read it properly, and couldn't think that it is possible to press all buttons

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13 months ago, # |
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Can someone please prove this If ai mod k=x , one of the following holds:

ai mod 2k=x ; ai mod 2k=x+k ; problem B

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    4 months ago, # ^ |
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    I know this is old but I'm writing this for me and for any one trying to understand in the future

    the second case will only happen if ai == 1k+r and not 2k+r or 3k+r ......

    r means the reminder (its denoted as x in the editorial)

    so when we use 2k then our reminder will be 1k+r

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13 months ago, # |
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B was such a good question. Was stuck on the gcd approach for a while before realizing the pattern in the bits.

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Check my submission,i had different implementation you might find what you are looking for

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13 months ago, # |
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Alternative solution for E:

Let's call a subset $$$S$$$ of pressed buttons good if at the end at most $$$\left \lfloor \frac{n}{5} \right \rfloor$$$ lamps turned on. For $$$n \leq 19$$$, the amount of such subsets is $$$\leq 1159$$$. We can find them for each $$$n \in [1, 19]$$$ in $$$O\left(\sum\limits_{n=1}^{19} 2^{n} \cdot n \log n\right)$$$, and then check only them for each $$$n \leq 19$$$ testcase in $$$O(nm + 1159n)$$$.

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Actually, you can prove that the number of such subset for $$$n = 19$$$ is exactly $$$\binom{19}{3} + \binom{19}{2} + \binom{19}{1} = 1159$$$ since we can think of each switch $$$i$$$ associated with a vector $$$v_i \in \mathbb{Z}_2^{19}$$$ and all the vectors are independent, so $$$v_1$$$, $$$\dots$$$, $$$v_{19}$$$ is the basis, and we only care when $$$\oplus_{j = 1}^k v_{i_j}$$$ has less than or equal to $$$3$$$ bits on (excluding the case it is equal to zero), so we get the above result.

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13 months ago, # |
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In problem D could we have solved for the smallest x in x*k+ Sum of Ai which is divisible by x+n

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Consider the case $$$A = [1, 2, 3].$$$ In this case $$$x = 0$$$ is the best choice, which is incorrect.

    For only positive $$$x$$$ values, consider $$$A = [10, 10, 20]$$$ and $$$k = 10$$$. In this case smallest $$$x$$$ is $$$2$$$ that satisfies the condition, but you can't really make all numbers equal.

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13 months ago, # |
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Can anyone help me with a simple test case for which my submission is wrong for C? It's the same logic as the above solution

https://codeforces.me/contest/1909/submission/238575783

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13 months ago, # |
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In problem C, making small intervals is not the same as sorting the sequences of left and right endpoints and pairing the corresponding indices. Let, $$$u = L_1,L_2,...,L_n$$$ si obtained after sorting $$$l_1,l_2,...,l_n$$$ and $$$v = R_1,R_2,...,R_n$$$ is obtained after sorting $$$r_1,r_2,...,r_n$$$. Then the new intervals will be $$$[L_1,R_1], [L_2,R_2],...,[L_n,R_n]$$$.

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    what are you trying to say ? can you explain a little more ?

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      What is the difference between the approach explained in the editorial and my approach?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        Your approach fails for $$$l = [1, 2]$$$, $$$r = [3, 4]$$$, $$$c = [1, 2]$$$. You claim that it's optimal to keep everything as it is, while the editorial makes $$$l = [1, 2]$$$, $$$r = [4, 3]$$$, $$$c = [1, 2]$$$ ($$$3$$$ is matched with the closest $$$l_i$$$, which is $$$2$$$). The picture "explains" why the second solution is better than the first.

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          Hi, I didn't understand the picture can you explain it once? what is the 3 and 5 and what the different colors represent

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            13 months ago, # ^ |
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            The red subinterval is the only one whose cost changes (from $$$5$$$ to $$$3$$$). In general, you want intervals with big cost to be as small as possible, so you let intervals with small cost "steal" subintervals from intervals with larger cost.

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13 months ago, # |
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In problem E, What the following line does inside the check(int s) function of Jiangly's code 238527503

if (s >> u[i] & ~s >> v[i] & 1)

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    If button $$$i$$$ is pressed, then s>>i will be $$$1$$$. This line is to check whether $$$m$$$ pairs are satisfied.

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13 months ago, # |
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Thanks for interesting tasks.

Little comments for authors. problems $$$B, D, F$$$ are really cool, because they can be solved without any algorithms with only a brilliant idea.

Problem $$$C$$$. Maybe it was better to make more samples, because there were a lot of WA's and a lot of greedy solutions can pass example tests(but of course incorrect).

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13 months ago, # |
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Problem E is kind of funny.I tried to use complicated graph algorithms but failed.And the official solution is cool!I love it!

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13 months ago, # |
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I have another solution for problem G. It is easier than the intended one in my opinion, at least idea-wise.

Solution
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13 months ago, # |
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In D, "Now, the operation becomes "replace x with y+z such that x+y=z+k⟹(x′+k)+(y′+k)=(z′+k)+k⟹x′+y′=z′ ". Therefore, in the shifted problem, k′=0" .

I think it should be y+z = x+k instead of x+y = z+k.

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13 months ago, # |
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I can understand the solution of G now,but I've got no idea about how the vital observation "$$$(a,b)$$$ is valid then $$$(a+1,b+1)$$$ is valid if and only if $$$s_{b+1}=t_{b+1}$$$" was found.What inspired you think about that?Can someone help me?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    Actually, I only found it while preparing the problem (with constraints $$$n, m \leq 2 \cdot 10^5$$$). I was trying to build strong tests (where the valid $$$y$$$ of fixed length are not consecutive), but I ended up proving it's not possible.

    I'm curious about how actual contestants figured it out.

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13 months ago, # |
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Can someone explain the intution behind problem C?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      Can you explain how the rearrangement inequality is related?

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        I guess I actually do see how it is used in the problem (in sorting the cost array in descending order with the lengths), but that wasn't the hard part for me. The part that was hard was how to pick the elements l and r. I guess an intuitive explanation would be that you want to maximize the lengths so that you can pair a higher length with a a lower cost. To do that, for the smallest Rs, you want to pick and L that is the closest to them because you want to save the smaller Ls for the Rs that are larger, because that results in a larger lengths. I can elaborate more on this if anyone wants me to.

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13 months ago, # |
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in problem c I'm trying to follow the editorial in the proof section he is saying at the third line If you swap ri and rj, the cost does not increase. I did that on the example n=2 provided and the cost increased from 6 to 7 first step he said match them any other order so: [2,4] [1,3] then he said You have also assigned some cost ci to [li,ri] and cj to [lj,rj] . [2,4] ci=2 [1,3] ci=1 now cost is 6 then ** If you swap ri and rj, the cost does not increase. ** swapping here will make the cost 7 so I don't get it can you please explain what is wrong here

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    In the editorial, $$$c_i \leq c_j$$$. If $$$c_i > c_j$$$, you have to swap $$$l_i$$$ and $$$l_j$$$.

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13 months ago, # |
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Can someone help me to explain the complexity of problem E plz?

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    For each test case, you have to iterate over $$$O(n^{k-2}) = O(k^{2k-4})$$$ masks (in the worst case), and for each of them you can check if it works in $$$O(m)$$$.

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      13 months ago, # ^ |
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      I know how to prove $$$O(n)=O(k^2)$$$, but I don't know how $$$O(n^{k-2})$$$ comes out (especially $$$k-2$$$ power). Sorry for bad English expression.

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        13 months ago, # ^ |
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        tl;dr replace $$$5$$$ with $$$k$$$ and $$$3$$$ with $$$k-2$$$ in the editorial.

        The largest solution to $$$\lfloor n/k \rfloor < \lfloor \sqrt n \rfloor$$$ is $$$n = k(k-1)-1$$$. In that case, you already have a solution which turns $$$\lfloor \sqrt{k(k-1)-1} \rfloor \leq k-1$$$ lamps on, so you can iterate over masks which contain $$$k-2$$$ lamps.

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          Thank you so much!

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          13 months ago, # ^ |
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          But here seems to be a little mistake? I suppose it should be "The largest solution to $$$\lfloor n/k\rfloor<\lfloor \sqrt{n}\rfloor$$$".

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13 months ago, # |
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For D, the shifting part is still unclear to me(ik what is being done ,but how is it correct and how to think of it) thnx in advance if someone can spare their time or share related resources

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    I was really struggling for a while to come to grips with this solution and I think I am now (mostly) convinced of why it works, so I'll try to explain my way of thinking about it.

    Imagine a number line with numbers x, y and z marked such that y + z = x + k.

    Now think about the operation you can do: y + z = x + k. Going back to the number line, what this operation means is you would have to pick x and move it k unities to the right, then pick two numbers x and y such that their sum "lands" in (x + k) and not x.

    For each of those three numbers now, mark in the number line its value shifted k unities to the left, and call these new guys x', y' and z'. Clearly you can represent x by (x' + k), y by (y' + k) and z by (z' + k). So, looking again at our operation, we have (y' + k) + (z' + k) = (x' + k) + k -> y' + z' = x'.

    What that tells us is that if we had a magical way of taking every number on our line and shifting it k unities to the left, when we would execute the operation on an original number x, instead of doing that complicated process (moving it k unities to the right and only then finding numbers which add to it), we could map x to its representation in the shifted "world" and find two other numbers, also in the shifted world, such that their sum is equal to the representation of x.

    Our magical way of doing this shift is simply to take every number given in the input and subtract it by k. Now, for every operation we do in those numbers (including gcd), we are working with numbers from our shifted world; so we can now solve the problem as if k didn't even exist. Hope this is helpful in some way :)

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13 months ago, # |
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can someone give the intuition behind the idea of "shifted problem" for D ? is it a trick or just random manipulation for this specific problem

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13 months ago, # |
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In D you can also do the reverse problem: Start at the final state which is a bunch of identical elements then apply "combine and subtract $$$k$$$" operations and arrive at a similar solution with algebra.

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12 months ago, # |
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problem D is amazing i have different approach for. suppose mn and mx are the max and min elements if mx == mn ans is 0. if mn <= k && k <= mx we can neve the values of array to a single value. if k < mn || k > mx ans will exist. assume at the end all the elements are equal to x so the last element we remove = 2 * x — k. second last element we would remove will be either 2 * x — k or 3 * x — k and so on. it shows that all the elements in the initial array is of the form .. pi * x — (pi — 1) * k, after rearranging pi(x — k) + k. now ans would be just summation of all pi.

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12 months ago, # |
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can somebody please help me with my doubt?

https://codeforces.me/blog/entry/125187

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11 months ago, # |
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Problem I is 1900!!!

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10 months ago, # |
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C seems to be a bit difficult for a 1400; or is it just for me?

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    Div1C is different difficulty than a Div4C problem even if they're both rated same.

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10 months ago, # |
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ai mod 2k = x;
ai mod 2k = x + 2k;

There must be x + 2k instead of x + k.

For example, let ai = 5 and k = 2:

5 % (2*2) = 1;

Hence, x is 1.

If we go with ai % (2k) = x + k, then:

1 + 2 != 5

But:

1 + 2*2 == 5;

TheScrasse

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6 months ago, # |
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C was a great problem. I did it by sorting li array,and iterating it from back,now find upper_bound of each li in ri array and pair li with it. The main idea was: in any kind of arrangement sum of all (ri-li) would be same,which basically means its always better to create least posssible (ri-li) at each instant possible,so that large ci could be assigned to them and the differential gain due to large ci reduces.

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6 months ago, # |
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Nice contest

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6 months ago, # |
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Fast and on point editorial.

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4 months ago, # |
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in B , Learnt that while shifting for large powers to use 1LL<<i, else shifting wont work for large powers & (1<<i) while shifting make sure it doesnt fudge with the brackets