I am back to hard working

June 24, 2018

Introduction 

It is so hard for me to go back to be a hard working programmer. It took me more than three weeks. I spent two days sitting at home the whole weekend, worked inside home office. First day it was Saturday, I did not want to go out, but I did not work on week of code 38 either.

Second day, I told myself to hold on everything just to play week of code 38. I only wrote first two algorithm less than three hours, one friend asked me to mock interview with him. It was maybe 5PM, I had discussion with him until 6:40 PM.

I was so patiently to go back to work on the third algorithm. Now it is 11:47 PM. I only worked on the contest less than 12 hours. Now I finally figured out the third algorithm even though I had to go over discussion panel to read all the discussion to figure out two user cases. I made it from score 0 to full score.

It took me almost one hour to read the problem statement of A time-saving affair, after one hour just thinking about the algorithm, I started to code and try to make any point if I can.

Love is patience 

Since I love algorithm and data structure challenge, I learn to be so patient to myself. I just let myself to enjoy the time to think, time to write code, hold on worry about scoring zero, and read the problem statement and search discussion for tips patiently. I know that the English wording in the problem statement is questionable. I just need ideas to think about the constraint different viewpoints.

I just gave myself enough time and let my brain think and try to write some code, simplify and make it work.

Now I push myself rank to top 25%.

I need to plan ahead and work in weekdays, and allow myself to work on hard level, advanced level and expert level in weekends.

I really enjoyed the time to write around 100 lines of code for the medium level algorithm. Finally I am back to normal, hard working, do not think about anything else.

I should write a medium/ hard level algorithm daily, otherwise I am very easy to get lazy.

Action Items

Julia, you should try to work on hard level and advanced level algorithm after the contest. Try to get out of comfortable zone and start to learn some hard level algorithm.

Follow up

My feelings of working on medium algorithm:

I need to expedite the thinking process. It is too slow. It is just a medium level algorithm.

I could not pass all test cases since timeout on second easy level algorithm.

If I like to pass onsite interview from SDE III, I have to push myself hard when I practice.

In terms of Hackerrank contest, I should be able to solve medium level algorithm without any headache. Those long hours to work on one medium level algorithm is alarm for me, I have to come out a plan to work on something. It should be less than two hours. 15 minutes to think about problem at most, not over one hour.

Replay of the last hour of contest

I finished the code passing the sample test case, but scored 0. I had only less than two hours to the end of contest. Maybe it is one hour only. I tried to push hard to figure out the issue.

I read the problem statement for a few times. And then I started to notice my design issues.

I already made sure that there is no dead loop. I still missed the issue, that is the best time to play contest after long hour. I showed up determined, very careful to scrutinize all possible issues.

I just like to use two graphes to show those kinds of experience are really healthy to train my mental toughness. I think that all the training and good habit to deal with uncertainty helped me in those 20 to 30 minutes to push hard.

I just showed those two images here and then memorized those hard working moments. The thing I could control very well, I should focus on. I start to realize my value of time of one hour in this critical moment. From bottom 15% to top 25% in the one hour.