MikeMirzayanov's blog

How to come up with the solutions: techniques

By MikeMirzayanov, history, 33 hours ago, translation,

As I work with students I often face the situation when if a problem doesn't seem clear to a student at
the first sight, it makes them unable to solve it. Indeed, you always hear about specific methods and
techniques. But you don't hear about how to think in order to apply them. In this note I'll try to sum up
my experience of solving programming contest problems. However, some pieces of advice will also
be applicable for olympiads in mathematics and your first steps in academic research.
So you've read a problem and you don't know how to solve it. Try the following techniques, some of
them can often come handy.

Technique 1: "Total Recall"

Try to remember some similar problems that you had to solve. Quite many problems do not have a
brand new idea. So probably, you can use your experience of solving a similar problem to solve this
one.

Technique 2: "From Specific to General"

Let's say that you've found the solution for the problem (hurray!). Let's consider some particular case
of a problem. Of course, you can apply the algorithm/solution to it. That's why, in order to solve a
general problem, you need to solve all of its specific cases. Try solving some (or multiple) specific
cases and then try and generalize them to the solution of the main problem. Such specific cases can
be regarded as the simplifications of the problem, i.e. we can reason by the following principle: "if I
don't know how to solve a complex problem, I think I'll simplify it and find the solutions of the
simplified version".
The popular examples of simplifications (specific cases):

you get a problem for a tree. Consider its variant where the tree degenerates into a path;

the problem has weights? Consider a variant where all the weights are equal either to one or
to an arbitrary number, or there are only two distinct weights (and so on).

Note that the solution of a specific case almost always isn't easier than the solution of a general one,
so you need to try and find a solution that would be as easy and effective as possible.

Technique 3: "Bold Hypothesis"

Don't be shy of making bold hypotheses that seem true to you. You do not have to prove your
solutions during contests, tap your inner intuition. When you've come up with your hypothesis, try to
prove it it may either work out well or give you an idea of how to disprove it. Do test the hypothesis
on a wide set of tests as it would be a pain to waste time on implementing a solution based on a
hypothesis and only after that disprove the hypothesis.
Examples:

the solution always exists;

item the number of states isn't large.

Technique 4: "To solve a problem, you should think like a problem"

I'm serious, put yourself in the shoes of the character of the problem, imagine that it's your job to
handle the input sets. Think about how you'd act in this case. Try to process some small samples on
your own. If the problem is about a game, play it. Sometimes I try to visualize a process or a model
for better understanding. It's a little like how movies show the way scientists think. Try to think in
images, imagine the solution, see it unfolding.

Technique 5: "Think together"

This technique is only applicable to team contests. In group of two or three persons start saying
some clear facts about the problem. For example: "if n is even, then the answer is always 0", "if n is
prime, then the solution should go like that", and so on. Sometimes your teammates will pick up
ideas and develop them and this strategy can get you through the problem.

Technique 6: "Pick a Method"

Try coming through popular algorithms or methods that can apply to the problem in any way. It is
useful to see the problem limits. Having picked a method, try thinking on the solution assuming that
the problem is solved using this method. Your reasonings should be somewhat like this: "Let's
assume that the problem is solved by divide and conquer. Then let us solve this problem recursively
for the left and right half. Now all that's left is to find a way to unite these solutions. I wonder how we
can do that..."

Technique 7: "Print Out and Look"

Quite often (especially in problems with a small input: one/two numbers) there are some patterns in
the composition of the solution. To see a pattern, you sometimes need to write some naive method of

solving a problem, generate answers for a large number of tests on large limits and meditate on your
answers for a while. In order not to keep the computer busy, a good strategy is to print out the
acquired results and meditate this time on the print outs.
Sometimes it is a good idea to print not only the answer, but also some extra information, such as a
manner of acquiring a solutions.

Technique 8: "Google"
This technique can only be used if the round/contest rules allow it. If the problem is about
sequences, then you can look for solutions (see technique 7) on the site https://oeis.org/. It helps to
understand the formal model of the problem and google the correct mathematical terms.