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I don't seem to understand programming practice problems on various sites like CodeChef, SPOJ, TopCoder etc. What am I supposed to do?

  • I have done my B.Sc in Information Technology from Mumbai University. I am not from Science background and have studied basic mathematics.I had Data Structures as a subject in one of the semester but we were only taught theory part and i wasn't interested in that at all.I wasn't known to all these sites where we can practice problems on coding and can also participate in challenges. I was always interested in coding and challenges but due to my limited knowledge wasn't able to hone my skills.I didn't knew DS was an important subject for programming because we weren't taught the way IITians and other reputed engineering institutes teach. That was past, so when I got acquainted with these sites I started studying DS and Algo from https://www.coursera.org/course/algs4partI and https://www.youtube.com/user/mycodeschool ..I seem to understand the concepts and I am also  reading Data Structures and Algorithms (Puzzles) by Narasimha Karumanchi along with CLRS. But when I go to practice sites likes CodeChef and TopCoder i don't seem to understand problems.I try it but, what does a particular problem do is very unclear.I can't even to solve easy(easy category) problems on CodeChef. This leaves me discouraged and anguish. I try and concentrate on concepts and start reading more but the problem is always on the back of my head.I feel I can't even solve an easy problem how am i going to participate in challenges. I try to get help from source code but i don't understand it. It took me 4 days for solving http://www.spoj.com/problems/PRIME1/ for an instance.. Now how can I improve myself I have no guidance and no friends who are interested in competitive programming.I have no environment for these kind of challenges so when i am stuck only resource is Google but even Googling doesn't make concepts clear at times.   Sorry for writing such a long description but I wanted to explain each and every bit of what's happening with me. I don't want to get into programming where i have make use of frameworks and stuff for even the small and mediocre sized projects .For instance Drupal,Wordpress,Codeigniter,Django etc (no offense). I like to build everything from scratch..

  • Answer:

    Everyone will say practice... more practice I would say play smart. Go through Topcoder Tutrials [1] and solve the questions. Please read my answer on - .. hope it helps you. What do you need? patience + interest All that matters is the first step. Stop thinking and start working. Solve 1 problem daily; spend 3-4 hours on each problem (if you're unable to crack it); then go through the editorial for that problem and code it. NOTE: Never code a problem that you can easily solve Don't be surprised if it takes more than 3 months (100 problems) to improve your skills External links [1] http://www.topcoder.com/tc?d1=tutorials&d2=alg_index&module=Static

Mitesh Pathak at Quora Visit the source

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Start by solving practice question on http://codechef.com start from easy problem. By seeing solution of other coders learn how problem's are solved. A local guy was selected into google.He started by solving single problem for days and after two years he had the result. Consistency is the key.Practice makes the man perfect.

Priyansh Agarwal

Welcome to the world of competitive programming. Few months back, my only interest was in app development and related programming. I just love making apps. I never actually launched an app, though, I used to do some coding all the time. Some of my friends suggested SPOJ, but I just opened an account, solved the simplest problem available there (Life, Universe and everything) and immediately closed. That was back in February. During my last semester, I don't know why, out of boredom, I opened spoj, opened up a friends profile and started solving. And Bamm. In a week, 37 ACs. I was even in the weekly top 10 of spoj last week. Then again, I lost interest in competitive programming.If you don't have interest in something,  it doesn't mean that you must be bad at it. Do whatever you actually like, whatever interests you. You can't stand out of the crowd while following them. If you are not good at something which actually interests you, then never stop trying. PS: Prime1 is not a very easy problem. A simple Bruteforce won't cut it. It took me 5 tries. Never stop trying. Learn and try to implement some dynamic programming concepts.

Subhashis Bhowmik

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