Hello everyone,
I am practicing on CF since some months and I am facing two problems again and again.
- Problem statements are sometimes confusing
Many times the idea of the problem is easy, but I waste a lot of time just to understand what the statement is asking. It would be good if testers also check the wording of the statement, and not only the solution.
- Many old problems have no editorial
When I get stuck in older problems, there is no editorial or only a one-line comment like “use DP”. For beginners it is very difficult to understand the logic like this.
Maybe a community editorial option can be added, or at least a note that the editorial is not available.
Did anyone else face the same thing? If you know good resources for old problems, please share in comments, it will help everyone.
Thanks for reading
1)"Problem statements are sometimes confusing"
switch to atcoder then come back again after atleast 20abc contest and start doing div3 contest(atleast 2-3 contests) then switch to div2
2)idk
For 1, I agree however I don't think the problems are neccesarily poorly written for the problem itself. By that I mean, I think that as complicated as most problems are, they are written as nicely as they can be (at least in cf rounds most of the time). As for 2, you can often find other solutions in the comments under editorials or under the contest blog or just by using google. Also usually if there is a very terse editorial, the problem is likely using a very trivial application of the technique for the probelm and if it is difficult to understand, there is a good chance the problem is more difficult than the range you should be practicing with or you have not spent enough time with the problem yourself.
I'm a beginner myself and I've encountered the problems you're talking about. I'll share my experience, and hopefully, that helps you.
Now for this, what helps me is sitting down with a pen and paper and reading the problem again and again. Most problems I have solved till now have a story in them. So, simply discard useless things and try to understand what is going on behind the scenes in the problem. You can do this using the test cases provided as well. Reading, understanding, and decoding a problem multiple times has helped me a lot.
I've faced this issue a lot... and yeah, some editorials tell you right to your face "use DP," which makes you think you have a massive skill issue. For this, I would suggest typing the problem on YouTube; chances are you'll find it. Second method—now this might be skeptical, so use it only as a last measure—try to ask an AI like Gemini or ChatGPT for the problem answer and the concept it uses (don't ask for the code though, only the intuition being used and how it's being used in the given question). Going further, implement it on your own. Don't rely too heavily on AI though; after all, getting stuck is the indicator that you're growing.
The problems you've mentioned are totally normal and everyone faces them. I'll attach a few blogs that also helped me: https://codeforces.me/blog/entry/62730 https://codeforces.me/blog/entry/20548
I just checked that u have registered 5 days ago... so its quite normal to feel that ... take some time it will be fixed...
Another problem is, the queue some time is too long