6/20/2015 ProgrammingContestProblemTypes

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ProgrammingContestProblemTypes

HalBurchconductedananalysisoverspringbreakof1999andmadeanamazingdiscovery:thereareonly16typesofprogrammingcontestproblems!Furthermore,thetopseveralcomprisealmost80%oftheproblemsseenattheIOI.Heretheyare:

DynamicProgrammingGreedyCompleteSearchFloodFillShortestPathRecursiveSearchTechniquesMinimumSpanningTreeKnapsackComputationalGeometryNetworkFlowEulerianPathTwoDimensionalConvexHullBigNumsHeuristicSearchApproximateSearchAdHocProblems

ThemostchallengingproblemsareCombinationProblemswhichinvolvealoop(combinations,subsets,etc.)aroundoneoftheabovealgorithmsorevenaloopofonealgorithmwithanotherinsideit.Theseseemextraordinarilytrickytogetright,eventhoughconceptuallytheyare``obvious''.

Ifyoucanmastersolvingjust40%oftheseproblemtypes,youcanalmostguaranteeasilvermedalattheIOI.Mastering80%movesyouintothegoldrangealmostforsure.Ofcourse,`mastery'isatoughnuttocrack!We'llbesupplyingaplethoraofproblemssothatyoucanhoneyourskillsinthequestforinternationalfame.

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