Introduction

Bjarki Ágúst Guðmundsson

Tómas Ken Magnússon
Árangursrík forritun og lausn verkefna
School of Computer Science
Reykjavík University
Welcome

• T-414-AFLV, Árangursrík forritun og lausn verkefna

• Bjarki Ágúst Guðmundsson, bjarkig12@ru.is

• Tómas Ken Magnússon, tomasm12@ru.is

2
Goal

• Given a problem, we want to

• solve it efficiently
• by using algorithms and data structures,
• convert our solution into a program,
• do it as quickly as possible (under pressure)
• and do it correctly (without bugs)

• This course will exercise this process

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How?

• Study common types of problems

• Show common applications of algorithms and data structures you
already know from
• Reiknirit (the algorithms course)
• Gagnaskipan (the data structures course)
• Introduce other common algorithms and data structures
• Go over some commonly used theory
• Practice problem solving
• Practice programming
• More practice
• More practice

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Course book

• Competitive Programming by Steven Halim

• First edition can be downloaded from the book homepage:
• https://sites.google.com/site/stevenhalim/

• We will loosely follow the first edition

• There’s also a 2nd and 3rd edition (both should be compatible with
our course), but they need to be ordered online

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Piazza

• Piazza can be used to ask questions

• https://piazza.com/class/in9iwmhczfd1dv

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Course schedule

Class no. Date Topics Activities

1 25.04 Introduction
2 26.04 Data structures and libraries
3 27.04 Data structures
4 28.04 Problem solving paradigms
5 29.04 Greedy algorithms Problem session I
30.04
01.05 Problem sets week 1
6 02.05 Dynamic programming
7 03.05 Unweighted graphs
8 04.05 Graphs
9 05.05 Network flow
10 06.05 Problem session II
07.05
08.05 Problem sets week 2
11 09.05 Mathematics
12 10.05 Strings
13 11.05 Geometry
14 12.05
15 13.05 Final exam
14.05
15.05 Problem sets week 3, Bonus problems

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Problem sets

• Each class covers a topic

• A talk about the topic before noon
• After noon you get a set of problems about that topic
• Groups of up to three people can discuss the problems, but each
individual must write and hand in their own code
• We will check for similar submissions, and take action if we think
that people are cheating

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Problem sets

• Each problem set has 5 problems

• Each problem is assigned some amount of points
• To get a perfect score you need to get at least a certain amount of
points
• The grade follows linearly from the number of points you get
• If you get 85% of the required points, your grade is 8.5
• If you get 50% of the required points, your grade is 5.0
• If you get 100% or more of the required points, your grade is 10.0

• The deadline for a problem set is the following Sunday

• Except for Friday’s problem set, which is handed in the Sunday next
week

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Bonus problems

• Each problem set contains two challenging bonus problems

• Deadline for all bonus problems is the same as the deadline for the
last problem set
• Bonus problems are only taken into account if the student would
pass the course before they’re taken into account

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Late handins, partial grading

• Late handins will not be accepted

• There should be more than enough time for each problem set
• Solutions will not be partially graded

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Problem sessions

• On each Friday is a programming contest

• Problems will be related to topics covered so far
• Teams of up to three people compete together
• Each team can only use a single computer

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Final exam

• Will be held on the last Friday

• Similar to a problem set from all the topics

• Need to pass the exam to pass the course

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Course evaluation

Problem sets 70%

Problem sessions 10%
Final exam 20%
Bonus problems 20%
Total 120%

• Remember that bonus problems are only considered if the student

passes the course, and is only used to raise the final grade
• A final grade greater than 10 will be reduced down to 10

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Introduction
The problems

• Typical programming contest problems

• Usually consists of
• Problem description
• Input description
• Output description
• Example input/output
• A time limit in seconds
• A memory limit in bytes
• You are asked to write a program that solves the problem for all
valid inputs
• The program must not exceed time or memory limits

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Example problem

Problem description
Write a program that multiplies pairs of integers.

Input description
Input starts with one line containing an integer T , where 1 ≤ T ≤ 100,
denoting the number of test cases. Then T lines follow, each containing
a test case. Each test case consists of two integers A, B, where −220 ≤
A, B ≤ 220 , separated by a single space.

Output description
For each test case, output one line containing the value of A × B.

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Example problem

Sample input Sample output

4
12
3 4
0
13 0
8
1 8
10000
100 100

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

int A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

int A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

• Is this solution correct?

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

int A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

• Is this solution correct?

• What if A = B = 220 ?

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

int A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

• Is this solution correct?

• What if A = B = 220 ? The output is 0...

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

int A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

• Is this solution correct? No!

• What if A = B = 220 ? The output is 0...

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Example solution

• When A = B = 220 , the answer should be 240

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Example solution

• When A = B = 220 , the answer should be 240

• Too big to fit in a 32-bit integer, so it overflows

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Example solution

• When A = B = 220 , the answer should be 240

• Too big to fit in a 32-bit integer, so it overflows
• Using 64-bit integers should be enough

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

long long A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

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Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

long long A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

• Is this solution correct?

21
Example solution

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
cin >> T;

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

long long A, B;
cin >> A >> B;

cout << A * B << endl;

}

return 0;
}

• Is this solution correct? Yes!

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Automatic judging

• The problems will be available on Kattis:

• https://ru.kattis.com/

• Kattis is an online judge, similar to Mooshak

• You will submit your solutions to Kattis, and get immediate
feedback about the solution
• You can submit in any of the supported languages:
• C
• C++
• Java
• Python 2
• Python 3
• C#
• and others

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Judge verdicts

• Feedback about solutions is limited

• You will (usually) receive one of:
• Accepted
• Wrong Answer
• Compile Error
• Run Time Error
• Time Limit Exceeded
• Memory Limit Exceeded
• We will not reveal which test cases Kattis uses to test your solution

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Tips

• There are a couple of tips and guidelines you can keep in mind
towards becoming a more effective programmer and better problem
solver

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Tip 0: Faster typing

• Become a faster/better typist

• Don’t let your fingers be the limiting factor of solving problems
quickly
• Good problem solvers have simple solutions; they don’t have to type
as much, but it’s still important to type in quickly

• TypeRacer is a fun and effective way to practice:

• http://play.typeracer.com/

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Tip 1: Quickly classify problems

• Practice quickly identifying problem types

• Rate of appearance of different problem types in recent ICPC Asia

Regional problem sets (which usually consists of 7-11 problems):

Category Sub-Category Frequency

Ad Hoc Straightforward 1-2
Ad Hoc Simulation 0-1
Complete Search Iterative 0-1
Complete Search Backtracking 0-1
Divide & Conquer 0-1
Greedy Classic 0
Greedy Original 1
Dynamic Programming Classic 0
Dynamic Programming Original 1-3
Graph 1-2
Mathematics 1-2
String Processing 1
Computational Geometry 1
Harder Problems 0-1

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Tip 2: Do Algorithm Analysis

• When solving a problem, our solution has to be fast enough and can
not use too much memory
• We also want our solution to be as simple as possible

• We can use Algorithm Analysis to determine if a solution will run

within the time limit
• Rule of thumb: 108 operations per second

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Tip 2: Do Algorithm Analysis

• When solving a problem, our solution has to be fast enough and can
not use too much memory
• We also want our solution to be as simple as possible

• We can use Algorithm Analysis to determine if a solution will run

within the time limit
• Rule of thumb: 108 operations per second

• We want to sort n ≤ 106 integers, and we have 3 seconds.

• Can we use a simple O(n2 ) bubble sort?
• What about a more complex O(n log n) merge sort?

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Tip 2: Do Algorithm Analysis

• When solving a problem, our solution has to be fast enough and can
not use too much memory
• We also want our solution to be as simple as possible

• We can use Algorithm Analysis to determine if a solution will run

within the time limit
• Rule of thumb: 108 operations per second

• We want to sort n ≤ 106 integers, and we have 3 seconds.

• Can we use a simple O(n2 ) bubble sort?
• What about a more complex O(n log n) merge sort?

• We want to sort n ≤ 103 integers, and we have 3 seconds.

• Can we now use the simple O(n2 ) bubble sort?

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Tip 2: Do Algorithm Analysis

• When solving a problem, our solution has to be fast enough and can
not use too much memory
• We also want our solution to be as simple as possible

• We can use Algorithm Analysis to determine if a solution will run

within the time limit
• Rule of thumb: 108 operations per second

• We want to sort n ≤ 106 integers, and we have 3 seconds.

• Can we use a simple O(n2 ) bubble sort?
• What about a more complex O(n log n) merge sort?

• We want to sort n ≤ 103 integers, and we have 3 seconds.

• Can we now use the simple O(n2 ) bubble sort?

• Always go for the simplest solution that will pass the time limit

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Tip 2: Do Algorithm Analysis

• You should practice doing approximate mental calculations

• Rule of thumb: 210 ≈ 103

• Sometimes you have a solution that you’re not sure is correct

• Try to prove it’s correct!
• Even if you don’t manage to prove or disprove it, you will probably
get a better understanding of the problem

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Tip 2: Do Algorithm Analysis

n Slowest Accepted Algorithm Example

≤ 10 O(n!), O(n6 ) Enumerating a permutation
≤ 15 O(2n × n2 ) DP TSP
≤ 20 O(2n ), O(n5 ) DP + bitmask technique
≤ 50 O(n4 ) DP with 3 dimensions + O(n) loop, choosing n C4
≤ 102 O(n3 ) Floyd Warshall’s
≤ 103 O(n2 ) Bubble/Selection/Insertion sort
≤ 105 O(n log2 n) Merge sort, building a Segment tree
≤ 106 O(n), O(log2 n), O(1) Usually, contest problems have n ≤ 106 (to read input)

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Tip 3: Master Programming Languages

• You should know your programming language like the back of your
hand
• This includes your programming language’s library
• C++’s Standard Template Library
• The Java Class Library
• If it’s already implemented in the standard library, you usually don’t
need to implement it yourself

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Tip 4: Test your solution

• You want to make sure your solution is correct and runs within the
time limit
• Or you already know it’s wrong, but don’t know why

• Try to break your solution by finding a counterexample (an input for

which your solution gives incorrect output, or takes too long to
compute an answer)
• Try edge cases, large inputs, ...

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Tip 5: Practice and more practice

• Problem solving and programming skills come with practice

• Lots of online judges that let you solve problems from past contests
• Some of these online judges also hold contests frequently
• Open Kattis, Codeforces, HackerRank, Codechef, UVa, TopCoder, ...

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Ad Hoc Problems
Ad Hoc problems

• The simplest kind of problem

• Just do what the problem description tells you
• Straightforward or a simulation
• Time limit is not an issue
• Sometimes long and misleading problem descriptions
• Sometimes tricky edge cases
• Complex problems can be hard to implement

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Problem: Cost Cutting

Company XYZ have been badly hit by recession and is taking a lot of cost
cutting measures. Some of these measures include giving up office space, going
open source, reducing incentives, cutting on luxuries and issuing pink slips.

They have got three (3) employees working in the accounts department and are
going to lay-off two (2) of them. After a series of meetings, they have decided
to dislodge the person who gets the most salary and the one who gets the
least. This is usually the general trend during crisis like this. You will be given
the salaries of these 3 employees working in the accounts department. You
have to find out the salary of the person who survives.

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Problem: Cost Cutting

Input
The first line of input is an integer T (T < 20) that indicates the number of
test cases. Each case consists of a line with 3 distinct positive integers. These 3
integers represent the salaries of the three employees. All these integers will be
in the range [1000, 10000].

Output
For each case, output the case number followed by the salary of the person who
survives.

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Problem: Cost Cutting

Sample input Sample output

3
Case 1: 2000
1000 2000 3000
Case 2: 2500
3000 2500 1500
Case 3: 1500
1500 1200 1800

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Cost Cutting: Solution

#include <cstdio>
#include <algorithm>
using namespace std;

int main() {
int T;
scanf("%d", &T);

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

int salary[3];
scanf("%d", &salary[0]);
scanf("%d", &salary[1]);
scanf("%d", &salary[2]);

sort(salary, salary + 3);

printf("Case %d: %d\n", t + 1, salary[1]);

}

return 0;
}

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Problem: SMS Typing

Cell phones have become an essential part of modern life. In addition to

making voice calls, cell phones can be used to send text messages, which are
known as SMS for short. Unlike computer keyboards, most cell phones have
limited number of keys. To accommodate all alphabets, letters are compacted
into single key. Therefore, to type certain characters, a key must be repeatedly
pressed until that character is shown on the display panel.
In this problem we are interested in finding out the number of times keys on a

cell phone must be pressed to type a particular message.

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Problem: SMS Typing

In this problem we will assume that the key pad of our cell phone is arranged as
follows.

abc def
ghi jkl mno
pqrs tuv wxyz
<SP>

In the above grid each cell represents one key. Here <SP> means a space. In
order to type the letter ‘a’, we must press that key once, however to type ‘b’
the same key must be repeatedly pressed twice and for ‘c’ three times. In the
same manner, one key press for ‘d’, two for ‘e’ and three for ‘f’. This is also
applicable for the remaining keys and letters. Note that it takes a single press
to type a space.

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Problem: SMS Typing

Input
The first line of input will be a positive integer T where T denotes the number
of test cases. T lines will then follow each containing only spaces and lower case
letters. Each line will contain at least 1 and at most 100 characters.

Output
For every case of input there will be one line of output. It will first contain the
case number followed by the number of key presses required to type the message
of that case. Look at the sample output for exact formatting.

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Problem: SMS Typing

Sample input Sample output

2
Case #1: 29
welcome to ulab
Case #2: 41
good luck and have fun

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SMS Typing: Solution

#include <cstdio>
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

string keys[12] = {
"", "abc", "def",
"ghi", "jkl", "mno",
"pqrs", "tuv", "wxyz",
"", " ", ""
};

int main() {
int T;
scanf("%d\n", &T);

for (int t = 0; t < T; t++) {

// Each test case is handled here

}

return 0;
}

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SMS Typing: Solution

// Each test case:

string line;
getline(cin, line);

int cnt = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < line.size(); i++) {
int cur;
for (int j = 0; j < 12; j++) {
for (int k = 0; k < keys[j].size(); k++) {
if (line[i] == keys[j][k]) {
cur = k + 1;
}
}
}

cnt += cur;
}

printf("Case #%d: %d\n", t + 1, cnt);

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Problem set 1

• The first problem set is already online

• Deadline is next Sunday
• We urge you to start right away nonetheless

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