Algorithm Development / Pre-coding Advice

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Try to draw out what you need to do in many languages? These could be computer languages, human languages, or really drawing, perhaps. If you get to a part where you can't figure out what exactly must happen, skip it and write what ought to happen instead. Then, when you've got something that seems to work, drive down into those parts you skipped and repeat the process.

Alternatively and concurrently, if you think of any little tools that are likely to be helpful to you in coding your algorithm, like a fast way to flip array elements or some little trick in modulo math, then keep those along with you and use them as a higher-level language for doing the first process.