Programming Contest Problem Types

Programming Contest Problem Types

Hal Burch conducted an analysis over spring break of 1999 and made an amazing discovery: there are only 16 types of programming contest problems! Furthermore, the top several comprise almost 80% of the problems seen at the IOI. Here they are:

• Dynamic Programming
• Greedy
• Complete Search
• Flood Fill
• Shortest Path
• Recursive Search Techniques
• Minimum Spanning Tree
• Knapsack
• Computational Geometry
• Network Flow
• Eulerian Path
• Two-Dimensional Convex Hull
• BigNums
• Heuristic Search
• Approximate Search
• Ad Hoc Problems

The most challenging problems are Combination Problems which involve a loop (combinations, subsets, etc.) around one of the above algorithms - or even a loop of one algorithm with another inside it. These seem extraordinarily tricky to get right, even though conceptually they are "obvious".

If you can master solving just 40% of these problem types, you can almost guarantee a silver medal at the IOI. Mastering 80% moves you into the gold range almost for sure. Of course, `mastery' is a tough nut to crack! We'll be supplying a plethora of problems so that you can hone your skills in the quest for international fame.

 

译文：

程序设计竞赛的问题类型

Hal Burch 在 1999 年的春假做了一次分析并获得了一个令人惊讶的发现：程序设计竞赛的问题中只有 16 种类型！

此外，在 IOI 出现过的问题中，前面几种占了大概 80% 。它们分别是：

• 动态编程（DP）
• 贪婪算法
• 枚举搜索
• 漫水填充算法（Flood Fill）
• 最短路径
• 递归回溯搜索技术
• 最小生成树
• 背包问题
• 计算几何
• 网络流
• 欧拉回路
• 二维凸包问题
• 大数问题
• 启发式搜索
• 近似搜索
• 杂项题

最有挑战性的问题是牵涉了环（组合、子集等）的组合问题，围绕着某个上面的问题，或甚至是一个算法中又有其他算法在里面的环。即使这些问题从概念上看都是“显而易见的”，但它们似乎都非常难以做对。

如果你可以精通40%的上述类型问题的解法，你大概可以保证能在IOI拿银牌。精通80%的话，你几乎可以肯定就是金牌的层次。当然了，“精通”是一件很困难的事情！我们将提供大量的问题，你可以用来磨练你的能力以追求国际奖项。

By Black Storm（使用为知笔记）