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Worth emphasising: Project Euler is a mathematical computation challenge, not a programming challenge like Advent of Code. The principal skill is algorithm desi
by moomin 2y ago
Worth emphasising: Project Euler is a mathematical computation challenge, not a programming challenge like Advent of Code. The principal skill is algorithm design and as the problems progress you need to do more and more maths before you start coding.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoDo you ever need to start coding? I thought it was a requirement of the project that problems be solvable with pencil and paper.
- wholinator2 2y agoWell you probably _could_ whiteboard it but some of them are about extending a pattern to the millionth term. If you're really smart you might be able to find a closed form to get there quick, but you can also just program the basic rule and iterate
- KeplerBoy 2y agoAfaik most of them require you to find the trillionth term, rendering naïve approaches futile.
- mudita 2y agoWhile some problems are actually solvable with just pencil and paper, this is not a requirement and the intention of the project is that problems will be solved with a combination of insight and coding. From the Project Euler website: "Project Euler is a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems."
- marsten 2y agoFor the harder Euler problems you usually need a combination of mathematical insight and good coding technique. Each problem typically provides sample values for smaller instances of the problem, which you can confirm with a straightforward solution approach. Then the actual problem will be to calculate f(10^500) or some absurd value that requires insight to make tractable. They are extremely good challenges overall.
- LPisGood 2y agoMath is to computer science as physics is to mechanical engineering, so I feel like there isn’t a massive distinction.
- xboxnolifes 2y agoThey didn't say computer science, that said programming.
- KeplerBoy 2y agoLet's just say you need a vastly different level of maths to succeed at project euler compared to aoc.
- llm_trw 2y agoAdvent of code is not a programming challage, it is a reading the spec challage.
- drysine 2y agoNot the last 3-5 days.
- dark-star 2y agoI would argue that the later Advent of Code challenges (especially from the last 3 or 4 years) are very similar to (early to mid-tier) Project Euler challenges in that you cannot start before giving it a good hour or so of thinking
- fuhsnn 2y agoPersonal experience: I stopped at a point where brute-forcing started to feel "unwelcomed", I think it was this one: https://martin-ueding.de/posts/project-euler-solution-66-diophantine-equation/ https://martin-ueding.de/posts/project-euler-solution-66-dio...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]