Hi Codeforces friends,

I’ve been practicing a lot for contests and solving old problems too. I want to share something I noticed: sometimes I make problems harder than they are. Last week, I tried a Div 2 B problem—it was about finding a pattern. I spent 30 minutes thinking of a big, complicated solution with DP and other tough ideas. But in the end, it was just a s**imple sorting trick** that took one pass. I lost points because of that!

Now I’m wondering—how do you know when to stop making a problem too hard and look for an easier way? I think the key to getting better at coding is learning when a problem is tricking me into thinking it’s harder than it is. I’m trying to stop after 5 minutes and ask myself: “Is this really a hard problem, or am I just overthinking it?”

What do you think? How do you avoid making problems too complicated? Or do you have funny stories where you realized the answer was easy?

Happy coding, and I hope all your solutions turn green!