I just saw that Cook off has only 2.5hrs duration, in contrast to the 10 days time for the Long challenge, how should one approach the Cook off questions and how many questions come for the same. Suggestions are welcomed. 
I always prefer going for the easiest one. But, how do you know which is the easiest? The simplest way is to wait for 1-2 minutes and see which problem has been solved. That’s the easiest one. You may read any problem in that time but waiting not more than 2 minutes is still far far better than concentrating on a problem which maybe is tougher than most of the problems and waste a lot of time in that problem.
So now, what if one doesn’t want to waste those 1-2 minutes, because every second is crucial in a short contest. I can tell what I do in that time. I look at the input, output and constraints of each problem. Usually, simple adhoc problems have simple input, output and also the constraints will be reasonable. I try to look at these to find easier problems and usually it works(not always).
Hope it helps!
1 Like
https://www.codechef.com/COOK84 you can look upto this for more idea , more over its a 2.5 hours contest with 5 questions , and the ranklist is of ACM style based . so one wrong submission or tle submission will result in 20 minutes penalty in your submission time and moreover you need to be sharp enough for a better rank , do the easiest one first, for that you can either wait for 2-5 mins or your luck , there are no partial marks for subtasks , its either you or you donot , so you need to be sharp enough with speed and accuracy . participate and you will know more
yeah, it’s a good approach thanks! xD
yeah, thanks looking forward to it!