21–30 of 138 posts
That may be what you want. However, a lot of these are outside my math knowledge/ability, without really expanding my programming ability.
There's only one problem for me with Project Euler. Eventually, the problems become more about coming up with the mathematical algorithm you need to solve it. That may be what you want. However, a lot of these are outside my math knowledge/ability, without really expanding my programming ability.
There's only one problem for me with Project Euler. Eventually, the problems become more about coming up with the mathematical algorithm you need to solve it. That may be what you want. However, a lot of these are outside my math knowledge/ability, without really expanding my programming ability.
In many of them, the naive solution is intractable in terms of time or memory, so some programming skill is required.
I've spent a lot of time reading wikipedia articles for algorithms that I don't understand trying to solve some these problems.
I solved about 80 of them, then my interest waned a little. But I wonder, are there any hints or recommended reading for the harder ones? Some of them I have no idea how to even start working on..
Do you have an example of such a problem?
I solved about 80 of them, then my interest waned a little. But I wonder, are there any hints or recommended reading for the harder ones? Some of them I have no idea how to even start working on..
If you don't know what to look for off the top of your head (which you probably wouldn't without a math degree), try to google around for math that looks relevant to your problem.
I find http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ and http://oeis.org/ to be very helpful for this.
I love project euler, but I've come to the realization that its purpose is to beat programmers soundly about the head and neck with a big math stick. At work last week, we were working on project euler at lunch, and had the one CS PhD in our midst not jumped up and explained the chinese remainder theorem to us, we wouldn't have had a chance.
The same company also had regular hack night where everyone drinks a lot of Tecate, agress on a Project Euler problem and a language no one knows, and races. Fun times.
A dozen Project Euler solutions in a given language can be an excellent pre-interview candidate screening technique. Quite simple to check for plagiarism too, within reason.
How much work are you comfortable making your candidates do before they even know whether they're getting an interview?