Where do i start??

Hey guys … i want to improve my programming and so i tried a few question in the practice tab from the easy section but i am not able to solve them so i am thinking of going to the basics and was wondering if any of you could suggest where should i start

All have gone through this and will keep going through it.
Start with the Easy problems. Like you have already done.
Now here comes the important part: Don’t give up, when you can’t get an AC.
Some Easy problems have tutorials for them, do them first.
start here: http://www.codechef.com/wiki/tutorials

P.S: 10-30 wrong attempts on a problem is nothing unheard of. Infact it is very common.
Note: Don’t peek into solutions just yet. Specially, if you are a newbie.

Disclaimer: I am not a very good coder. But I think the basics don’t change.
“Either you get AC or you quit there is no such thing as can’t solve.”

3 Likes

As Abhishek said do not give up . Thats the trick.
But make sure that you learn something every day.
Read a lot of tutorials… but not that of the question you are trying to do. :). Think and discuss about it with your friends. read here and there.

First few easy problems in practice are based on permutations and combinations, if i remember. Try to solve first those questions that have got most of the answers. (beware of this in long run. :)).

My disclaimer is same as above. :slight_smile:

Well what I am suggesting is a long route but it will help you a lot in long run.
Instead of directly attacking any problem you should have basic knowledge of some of the common algorithms and techniques like dynamic programming , divide and conquer etc.
For example if you want to find the contiguous sub sequence in an array with largest sum any beginner will think of checking all possible contiguous sub sequence of the array for maximum sum but this will take O(n^2) because you have to parse the array for each number time (which will give you a TLE here) but a dynamic programming approach exist which is not trivial to any beginner will take O(n) time only.
And there are many other questions which are slight modifications of these standard algorithms.

Arguably the best book where you will find almost all the standard algorithms is Introduction to Algorithms by CLRS. In the same time you can practice those questions also which you have just read. Here is list of questions divided in various section topic wise.

1 Like

@saurabh060792 Link for list of question seems to be broken. Check it out!

1 Like

First you realize that your concept about programming is clear or not,
For that you can solve the counter question related the concept of programming language,
if you have knowledge about basic concept than you can go this link
http://www.cquestions.com/2012/02/c-questions-and-answers.html
in this site you can easily solve your concept related query.If you have any question
any another programming language than you can send me mail on
[email protected]