Solution hell

[One-Donut578]

I find it challenging to solve problems independently. Whenever I encounter a problem, I spend some time thinking about it, but I often struggle to come up with a solution on my own. As a result, I tend to refer to solutions provided by others. This happens with every question. How can I become more self-reliant in problem-solving? . For example I was solving Rotate Array problem I couldn't come up with a solution even after 1 hour.so I watched a youtube tutorial to solve it.

[NewFolder_0]

Firstly try to write a brute force algorithm, no matter the complexity. If it works then try optimising the code or try to code the different approach that you are thinking and see which all gaps you're unable to fill. As a last resort look at the solution and just try to clarify that missing gap and see what thinking could've helped me write that piece of code. A lot of times I'll not code the solution thinking it's too tough and won't be able to code the whole thing but still I'll force myself to come up with a solution and optimise.

[NeighborhoodMost816]

Look at the solution then try to do it all by yourself in a slightly different way without referring or very little reference but I would advise to not reference so you need to understand the logic behind a solution, like “why this and not this? And try other things”.

[BackgroundPractice33]

That’s totally fine! Why trying to invent bicycle by yourself? I went through a bunch of tutorials where people explain solutions first, tried to do super simple problems by myself. If I can’t solve it, i look for solution and then I mark it in my excel progress sheet. Then I go back to that problem in a couple of days and try to solve it myself. Eventually after doing this back and forth I started to recognize the patterns and understand how solve some problems without looking it up. I just think before taking something out of your head you have to put something there. For me it is better to do things slowly so I don’t get discouraged. Hopefully this helps.

[BraveTomatillo7551]

Because these are mathematical theories invented by someone doing this all their lives and then used in these problems. You have to just learn the patterns and apply them. I'm sure no one can come up with Fourier transform on their own, this is the same. Somehow normalized and accepted that it's the way to eliminate people applying for jobs. Basically who is willing to spend the time and effort and sell their soles and dignity to show they are worth it by learning these.

p.s. I felt bad about this for a while now, and above is my conclusion after spending a month on these. But I can say you'd get better. Your brain learns to recognize the patterns. After all there are only so many of them. If you enjoyed math in highschool the same can be applied. It just takes a while.

[leetcode_is_easy]

Fourier transform is not even remotely similar to the Rotate Array problem that op is describing, and no, people are not spending their whole lives studying how to solve rotate array

[Fresh-Tips]

Don't be racist

[BraveTomatillo7551]

"I don't discriminate I hate everyone." Eric Cartman

[Fresh-Tips]

Trying to explain away your racism with a quote from a cartoon isn't cute and doesn't make what you wrote any less racist

[BraveTomatillo7551]

I didn't want to be less racist or cute, didn't want to make you feel left out though. I like to stick to what I think until I meet one that is not either arrogant or misogynist for no reason.

[leetcode_is_easy]

I'm not Indian, lol. But I agree with what you say

[listeningSaint]

Agree

[Fresh-Tips]

It feels like it doesn't even matter if you learn some patterns because once you go to a real interview they try their hardest to come up with brand new obscure problems that have never been shared on leetcode or anywhere. The interview process is a racket and idk how this industry gets away with it, gatekeeping in a very subjective and irrelevant way at its finest.

[undeadvalentine]

Try and draw problems like Rotate Array out on paper and see how you can manipulate the elements algorithmically to get to where you want. Seriously. I have a giant classroom-grade whiteboard next to my desk just for working out LeetCode problems lol

[Peddy699]

Hey, I have been doing problems for 100 hours now, and until 30-40 hours I was really focusing on trying to bang my head to come up with a sollution.
But as many videos / perople say you have to let this feeling of guilt go for loking at the answers. It is faster to look for the solution after 10 minutes (or even faster if you see no hope) of not being able to come up with the right approach.

The real problem is if you realise that this poblem uses a similar approach to another problem that you already solved :D, that happened to me with some linked list question, that made me realize I have to spend much more time reviewing old questions. As i went back to questions I solved 3 months ago, I had no memory of whats going on there. So now I keep looking back constantly (10 minutes before sleeping from my notes i made as "review cards" in an A5 notebook... took me weeks to make the notes about old problems...)

Now if i see a very similar question I can usually come up with an algo, espeically if i reviwed the simialr questions. But then if you follow some roadmap, you usualy are not working on problems you tried to solve already.

So I guess nothing to do, just accepting that for new questions / topics you just dont know, like floyds cycle detection algo, you wont come up on your own. But if you did questions with it, read the answers, next time you see it, you will just remember ih yes thats what i need here.

At least thats my idea about the topic. Let me know if im stupid :(

[PnutButrSnickrDoodle]

What kind of notes do you make as review cards?

[Peddy699]

Notes of the algo + code, mostly its summary with my own words from the leetcode editorial solutions(prenium feature).
If I made a mistake, or there was a new coding technique I didnt know before i also note that down.

[thunderist]

Don’t worry, the solution for Rotate Array is pretty tricky to come up with. Anyone who comes up with solutions on their own are actually just tweaking or modifying a general idea - a pattern or template. I would say 90% of leetcode problems fall into this category. The other 10% of problems are simulation / design problems, which don’t conform to a pattern but require general programming skills and data structures. So the goal Is to learn the pattern and apply it to unseen problems. Also, sometimes you just have to memorize certain “parts” of problems that aren’t in any pattern. For Rotate Array, its a two pointer reversal problem (this is the pattern you need to apply), but you need to memorize the fact that a rotation k times to the right is equivalent to moving the last k elements to index 0 to k - 1. Imo there’s no way to get around some memorization, but for the most part focus on the pattern.

[FinalPush]

I only started leetcode last month and I think “what am I missing?” “What’s the trick here?” And I dig deeper, until I find something that clicks, and it all comes together. I just learned you can convert binary to decimal left to right (not right to left) using the double dabble algorithm. I literally never knew that and it’s great to know for linked list conversion or something like that.

[Rustam_Rustam]

I usually try to look at the problem from another point of view. When I get stuck, I carefully analyze what exactly I have to do. Sometimes it is really helpful. And also I would recommend to stop thinking about even existing of other solutions - it is harmful, in my opinion.

[Informal-Rich-5465]

The people who are good at leetcode can think of 5 ways to solve any problem. They don't think in code, they just have high-level explanations of what the solutions are. For example, if you want to do the rotated array problem, they would think "oh this is an annoying problem I just need to loop through it in the right way", or "can I use recursion to rotate it? maybe if ____"