So far, I've got around 100 problems rated 1400+ accepted.
Most of the time, I think hard but fail to come up with a clear solution idea, so I end up reading the editorial or comments and then implementing the solution described there.
Still, I feel like I'm basically unable to solve 1400-level problems on my own.
I get lost in the analysis, fail to conceptualize the problem, miss key observations, and so on.
Given that, is "solve more problems" still valid advice?
I'm already comfortable with implementation and familiar with basic techniques and tricks (like binary search, DFS, BFS, etc.).
What I seem to be missing is some fundamental analytical ability.
I'm not sure if that can even be trained.
I’m curious — what has your experience been like getting past the Pupil level?
Codeforces round = imagine round.
You can try some 1600 analyitcal question, especially those with constructive algorithm and greedy labels, this can help much.
You can try thinking for 10 minutes before checking the editorial.
all in all, just solving more problems is not a valid advise. Instead, it should be changed into: "understand more problems".
Moreover, you need to dive deep into some ad-hoc problems. For example, binary search and greedy algorithms are commonly seen in CF rounds. These algorithms are often related to thinking for great solutions.
If you want concrete advice, persist to do ad-hoc problems and not often looking at tutorials are my only advice.
Hope you like my respond!
what do you mean by "imagine round"?
Because it needs a lot of occasional inspiration.
no offense but i don't think 100 1400 problems are nearly enough...
if u want to reach 1400 u can't just do 1400 rated problems that's just kinda how coding works
give virtual contests everyday until u can place under 3.5k rank~ u dont need dfs,bfs,dp,graphs or other topics,prefix sums and binary search should be enough..