Agree with Stanislav as well. Although it seems counter intuitive, looking at code is NOT helpful. You have to understand the analysis before looking at the code, otherwise you waste your time. As these codes might have principles which are more advanced than simple conditions/loops such as dynamic programming, BFS, etc... you must understand the solution first, as these principles are not always clear from the code. Also, everyone codes them differently... If you learn from the code and not from the principles, you might just understand the solution finally, but it will not help you for future tasks. And if you understood the principles already, then you should be able to code the answer yourself (although it might take a lot of time...), otherwise you wouldn't compete in CodeJam. I believe the reason for sometimes attaching a Python code is because python seems like pseudo-code, which makes it easier for the learning process and everyone can understand it even without learning python before. It's not the code that matters, it's the pseudo-code and principles! Besides, they only do it for really short solutions in which a pseudo-code is really helpful.
My advice: whenever a long code is attached to a solution, just SKIP it! That's the technique that works for me. Learning from the explanations and texts is more helpful for future problems. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Code Jam" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/google-code/-/Ilrh0wUnxpIJ. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
