Questions tagged [problem-solving]
Problem solving encompasses a number of techniques known as algorithms, heuristics, root cause analysis, etc.
89 questions
0
votes
2
answers
216
views
Conceptual approach to identifying duplicates
I'm not sure if this is the right stack exchange site for this, or maybe this is more of a reddit question, but don't rake me over the coals for asking. Happy to go post on another corner of the ...
- 109
-1
votes
2
answers
154
views
How to measure how "changy" something is? [closed]
I need to think of a way to model how one thing is more "changy" than another.
Say I need to index a news website's different news sections with some web crawler. I want to prioritise ...
anon
1
vote
0
answers
223
views
Rectangle packing / Bin packing with multiple frames
I have multiple rectangular frames, with different fixed heights. The width should be minimized and there is a maximum width. Then there are many different smaller rectangles. These should be packed ...
- 19
7
votes
1
answer
698
views
Smallest Rubik's cube state representation
I'm trying to determine what is the fewest number of bits I need to represent the state of a Rubik's cube. (EDIT: I am assuming the cube is a valid Rubik's cube that has not been altered and only ...
- 89
3
votes
2
answers
280
views
How to manage cart details across various devices
Recently I was asked in a interview to implement to e-commerce site .
One of the requirement was to maintain cart details across various devices .(i.e) if user adds a book from his iPhone , and when ...
- 37
-2
votes
1
answer
225
views
a valid ranking algorithm for facebook posts
I'm creating a website which will collect posts from facebook's pages to show to the users posts they are interested in (as my graduating project).
I'd like to be able to rank the posts that contain ...
- 113
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to reverse engineer URL routes from a bulk of HTTP requests/responses
I am building a web application crawler that crawls for HTTP requests (GET, PUT, POST, ...). It is designed for one specific purpose; bug bounty hunting. It enables pentesters to insert exploit ...
- 31
3
votes
1
answer
299
views
Practices for navigating uncertainty in software design
Background:
So I'm trying to create my first game engine for learning purposes. After looking up a few articles I was able to design the beginning portions of my engine to at least get me going. My ...
- 469
3
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Difficulties with Two's complement in Assembly
Everything discussed here will refer to Intel 8085 (8-bit architecture).
When using two's complement number "conversion" :
1.) If we take SBI 0F (subtraction) for example; immediate value 0F(hex) or ...
- 293
3
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Having trouble with AP computer science sample test problem
I am currently taking AP Computer Science at my high school and while looking at some sample AP test problems I came across one that really confused me.
Sample Problem
The answer to the problem is ...
- 51
15
votes
4
answers
2k
views
What programming problems do Monads solve? [closed]
I've read a lot of posts that explain what monads are, how unit and bind work, some of them plunging straight into category theory so abstract (for me at least) that makes the eyes bleed, some ...
- 195
21
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Algorithm for calculating a bullet path to a target with max. 2 ricochets
Sorry for the poor title but I didn't have a better way to phrase it...
So there's this amazing game by Nintendo (yes!) on Wii called WiiPlay. There're 9 minigames in it, and my favorite one is ...
- 358
1
vote
1
answer
830
views
Increment or double problem
I have a problem with an assignment. In this assignment I have to create a program which needs to calculate how many different possibilities are there to get from number a to b. To get from a to b you ...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
Turn over cards in minimum number of steps
Imagine you're given an array of cards. Some of them are facing down (0), while some of them are facing up (1). Is it possible for given fixed K to turn all the cards face-up by turning over any K ...
- 251
-1
votes
2
answers
252
views
How do developers deal with "where to start" problem in a context of overwhelming difficulties caused by too much heterogeneous information? [closed]
A friend of mine, a beginner PHP programmer, needs to link the product his company develops with a third-party product (a set of web services). He received the "relevant" documentation (a few hundred ...
- 139k
3
votes
2
answers
314
views
Ranking players depending on decision making during a game
How would I go about a ranking system for players that play a game? Basically, looking at video games, players throughout the game make critical decisions that ultimately impact the end game result.
...
- 149
2
votes
2
answers
526
views
What do you call a problem caused by a design flaw [closed]
Is there any terminology for a problem that is caused by a previous wrong decision?
For example you build your own framework, with a flawed MVC design. This in turn leads to weird situations when ...
- 131
0
votes
1
answer
141
views
Automatically analyze excel files
I have to replicate a manual generation of a large number of excel files. I started to manually track the relations between cells ( files, formulas, etc). I also had a talk with the person which ...
- 197
0
votes
1
answer
181
views
Estimed number of tries
Problem:
The Oscar Committee wants to decide which person should get the best actor award among the given N actors.For that they decided to use a random function random_bit() which returns either 0 ...
- 251
-2
votes
1
answer
192
views
Permutations of an array [closed]
I have an array of integers of length 20, filled with fourteen 0s, two 1s, two 2s and two 3s. It is like this:
[0,0,0,3,0,2,0,0,3,0,0,0,1,0,2,0,0,1,0,0].
I need a way to list all of its 20!/(14! 2! 2!...
- 111
1
vote
3
answers
673
views
Are problem-solving programming questions useful for improving one's general programming ability?
For example, like:
The inaugural International Olympiad in Frogleaping is being held in Australia in 2013 and you are determined to win. While you want nothing to do with such slimy, jumpy creatures, ...
- 433
2
votes
1
answer
429
views
Programming puzzle with constant selection
THE QUESTION:
There is an event where there are N contestants. There are three tasks in the event: A,B,C (say). Each participant takes part in the events in the listed order: i.e a contestant must ...
- 123
6
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How to detect root cause of problem or bug [closed]
Often in coding, I find it very slow and difficult to detect the root cause of a bug and sometimes I end up going to wrong point in my code. It's painful. I know that to detect the root cause of a bug ...
- 89
-2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Any tips in tackling extremely complex problems like the Hanoi Tower problem? [closed]
People often give me the "divide and conquer" tip, but I think for some problems it's not nearly enough. The problem with such a complex problem as the Hanoi Tower problem is that you can't even ...
- 25
14
votes
8
answers
9k
views
In an interview, is it better to code a brute-force solution to a tough question, or to spend the interview examining the question carefully? [closed]
Sometimes interview questions are hard, whether the interviewer intends them to be, or not. It can come down to a choice of whether to use the limited interview time to code up an ugly, inefficient, ...
- 15k