Count Solutions - ad infinitum18

June 10, 2017

Problem statement

It is 2:50 pm, here is the progress report.

It is very good learning experience. Julia will try some ideas to solve the time out issues. Julia solved the timeout issue by going over the detail, using binary search etc. But now the issue is wrong answer.

Now it is 11:28 pm. The best bet is to work on this algorithm, try to figure out why the answer is not correct. 11 answers for test case 1 to 10, 12 are wrong answers. The maximum score of the algorithm is 40.

Follow up after the contest 

It is June 11, 2017 11:48 am. Julia plans to look into test case 1, and figure out that why her binary search algorithm failed the test case 1.

Last Sunday morning she worked up to 1:40 am and then tried to figure out why her binary search algorithm failed the test case 1 - 10. She had good reasoning to use the curve of binomial x² + by analysis of top/ bottom node, two sides of top/ bottom node are in ascending/ descending order.

Julia thought about that it is most possible algorithm she could have gained more points if she can put some test cases in the contest.

Julia's C# code in the contest is here. Score 2.11 out of 40.

Julia's C# code in the contest using brute force, score 4.0 out of 40, code is here.