how do i improve the finding the "key idea" part of a question?
hello peeps,
i have noticed that my biggest problem right now isn't implementation, but recognizing the key idea behind a problem.
For context, I've solved around 112/150 problems of netcode, plus another 100+ different lc problems (around 150 mediums in total).
A recent example was Maximum Valid Pair Sum from a LeetCode contest.
During the contest, my first thought was a sliding window, but I eventually dropped it because I couldn't figure out how to choose the left boundary. After reading the solutions, I realized the intended idea was to use a suffix maximum. Once I saw that observation, the implementation was pretty straightforward.
This happens to me quite often:
- I usually don't struggle much with implementation once I know the main idea.
- My problem is recognizing the right observation or pattern during the contest.
Has anyone else gone through this stage? How did you improve your observation/pattern recognition?
For context, my main goal is to get better at solving online assessments (OAs) for software engineering roles.