fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Design is problem-solving
By: Saadia Minhas
Tags: User Experience, Design, Problem Solving, UX, Design Thinking

“Design’s fundamental role is problem solver” — Fast Company

Let’s understand what Design is. A collection of art, images, and text combined together to give a pleasant look, or design means something more?

Why do you design something? The process of designing always starts with a problem in hand. And design helps to resolve the problem in a way that satisfies the related user or group of users.

The main goal of UX designers should be to solve the given problem in the best possible way. For this purpose, they need to follow the below steps:

Understand the problem

Devise a plan to solve it

Follow the plan and define solutions

Test the solutions

Iterate and Improve

These steps can be mapped to any problem you face in everyday life. Design works in a similar way. The first step is to understand the problem. To understand the problem, as a UX designer, you need to meet with the users who are facing the problem and what they want to resolve it.

After understanding the problem, you will devise a plan to work on its solution. What areas you need to explore and what steps you will follow to define the solution.

Then you need to work on the plan and identify different solutions that can help to resolve the problem. After you worked on the solutions, there is a need to test those solutions with real users. This will help you get their feedback and thus iterate and improve the solution.

Design is not limited to resolving simple problems, it helps to provide an easy solution for complex problems as well. Design not only helps to provide a text editor to users; it also makes it simple to go through the lifecycle of machine learning models.

If you are not designing your products to resolve the user’s problems, then even beautifully designed products are not useful for the outer world.

Learn More about UX Design

Interaction Design Foundation will help you to learn how to design for efficiency and persuasion. Get 3 months of free membership to learn UX Design here.
Spotify Redesign — UX Case Study. Project Description
By: Kabeer Nautiyal
Tags: Spotify, Redesign, Music, Problem Solving, Experience Design

Project Description

Music; “the window to the soul” a forever companion. We find music a part of our everyday. Be it work or working out, we always find ourselves humming to the tune.

Spotify has been a trendsetter key member in the music streaming industry, thanks to its endless music library and powerful algorithms. Despite making the app more user-centric in the last 12 years, the experience has gotten a bit tad overwhelming for some.

This is my attempt at redesigning Spotify UX as per the problems discovered during my research phase. This project is solely a passion project and does not involve any real client or business.
More Research, More Problems. | Note 174
By: Sincerely Tam
Tags: Self-awareness, Motivational, Personal Development, Problem Solving

What do you want to do?

With the new year approaching fast, many of you are going to dive deeper into research. You’ll tell yourself you need to read one more article. You’ll say, I need to buy one more how-to book. You may even believe you need to purchase one more online course.



Have you stopped and asked yourself, “What do I really want to do?” Have you figured out where you want to go? Here’s a better question, have you set a goal?



Research is necessary. Going where you want to go and doing what you want to do is the only way to achieve whatever you are trying to achieve.



I’m willing to bet you already have the answers to most of your questions, but instead of going after your goal, you would rather convince yourself you need to do more research. Now is a better time than ever to get out of your comfort zone and take action. The funny thing is, too much research usually leads to not enough action.



The more research you keep doing, the more information overload you must deal with, and the more questions you’ll think you must answer. The more research you do, the more problems you’ll discover.

LISTEN:
The problem is not the problem
By: Yinka Adeniran
Tags: Problem Solving

The problem is not the problem…..your perspective is

Many of us many times are faced with very difficult problems both in our business life or family life. If there is one thing that is common to man, no matter their levels or status in life, it is that fact that we are all faced with one problem or the other.

So I discovered that those who do well in addressing and solving problems of life are those who don’t see problems as problems but as opportunities.

The problems we are faced with as a nation is also an opportunity for problem solvers

Many people saw Goliath as a huge problem, David saw him as an opportunity. Everything depends on your perspective

So remember, the problem is usually not a problem, the way we view or perceive it is usually the problem for most people. Welcome to the world of problems….the world of champions

@Dr Yinka Adeniran
Love the problem, Not the solution
By: Imran Uddin
Tags: Solution Design, Product Management, Problem Solving, Discovery Phase

The problem statement is as important as the solution and if I may I place problems a tad bit higher on the importance scale.

After all, solutions only exist because there are problems. This realisation came upon me after my trials and errors as you shall find in the ensuing paragraphs.

Years ago I was a Business Analyst (BA), my job was to document requirements and define solutions. For a few years I did exactly this: listened to stakeholders, documented what was missing, what could be improved, what can be introduced and then came up with a proposal. I got fairly good at doing this. So good that I thought this was all that was required of a BA. Most often this was true.

As my career progressed my job title got upgraded to that of a product manager (PM), I suffered The accidental PM deluge i.e. I didn’t ask myself if the job title change meant changes to the BA’s ways of working.

Good for me, however, the job description for the PM’s role became obvious in the transitory phase and more importantly when I was no longer handed “problem statements” but rather tasked to formulate “problem statements” (& provide “solutions” thereof)

The thrill to play detective by diving in multitude of data to discover problems and subsequently propose solutions started forming an addiction in itself. Unfortunately the solution provider was always applauded more than the problem discoverer, I fell for Go where the Glory is….over time it became a game where my only goal was furnishing solutions. I was starting to dilute focus on problem discovery.

I started to fallback to my BA days, expecting a (ready-made) problem statement so I can dish out my expert opinions & solutions. Alas, this came at a cost, the quality of solutions started to suffer and became questionable. Eventually questioning my credibility.

It didn’t take long before I took stock of the situation & upon introspection reached the very obvious realisation(s) :

1. A solution is as good as the understanding of the problem.

2. There can be many solutions but only one Problem.

3. Don’t trivialise any step of the problem discovery to solution delivery cycle.

4. Stop patronising solutions and solution heroes 😉

Armed with the newly learned trinkets, I go back to the drawing board and make Problem Discovery my first class citizen.
WHY DO I OVERTHINK?
By: Mental. Health .Collective
Tags: Insecurity, Mental Health, Problem Solving, Self Destruction, Overthinking

Before you can learn how to stop overthinking, you must first address the question, “Why do I overthink?” Often overthinking is a byproduct of anxiety or depression. If this is the case, you may need to treat your anxiety or depression to reduce overthinking. You may find that overthinking only materializes your need to make a tough life decision or when dealing with your insecurities. If overthinking is not a symptom of a deeper emotional issue, it can often be addressed by changing thoughts and actions.
A letter to the campus head of your university and divert the attention towards the unhygienic food being sold in canteen.
Tags: Letters, Blogger, Problem Solving, C Programming, Computer Science

A letter to the campus head of your university and divert the attention towards the unhygienic food being sold in canteen. Chilljust Dec 21, 2020·1 min read

A letter to the campus head of your university and divert the attention towards the unhygienic food being sold in canteen.

The Class Representative,

BS (Computer Science) 2ndSemester,

Subject: unhygienic food being sold in canteen

I am writing to you to bring your kind attention towards the fact that most of the food items that are being sold at the canteen are either canned, packed, processed items or fast food. This is seriously affecting the health of the students. Besides, the quality of the food items at times is ignored. Not only our money is wasted but our health is also being affected. Moreover the workers are rude to students. They shout at us and use foul language whenever they get angry. They also do not clean the dustbins and rubbish daily. This is very unhygienic. As a result, there is a foul smell whenever we eat in the canteen.

Thus, we would like to suggest that the management authorities make strongest checks on the canteen daily or weekly. They should also ensure that the canteen serves a variety of food at a reasonable price. The canteen must sell nutritious and healthy food such as, fresh fruits salad, fruit yogurt, fruit, fresh fruit juices(not only the artificial packed juices) and popcorn. The canteen requires complete up-gradation. I am hopeful you will definitely look into the problem and instruct the canteen in charge to do the needful up-gradations.
Solve It
By: Josh M.R. Allen
Tags: Problem Solving

Problem solving is a process. It’s easy to forget that in order to solve a problem, you need to actually focus on solving the problem.

I’ve been using a Udemy course by an instructor named Colt Steele, called JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Masterclass. In this course, Colt has an entire section devoted to Problem Solving and lays out actionable steps.

At first, I just made quick notes and moved on as quickly as possible. However, as I progressed in my endeavor to practice problems for tech interviews, I realized I had a problem. Or rather, it took a good friend of mine to point out that I had a problem.

The problem was that I kept jumping into the code the second I thought of something that might work. It’s one thing to move fast and break things, but it’s quite another thing to move fast and create more confusion for yourself, resulting in hours and hours of staring at the problem in question.

Here are Colt’s steps, many of which he used the book, How to Solve It, by George Pólya:

Summary of Steps:

Understand the problem. Explore concrete examples. Break the process down into an actionable list. Solve or Simplify and Solve. Refactor.

What I did to follow the steps consistently:

I wrote each step down on separate pieces of paper and arranged them like a pyramid above my work area on the wall. I practiced not jumping into code at first inclination. Thanks to a good friend, I realized my biggest weakness was my tendency to jump into the code without getting my logic down first. I practiced “exploring concrete examples” visually. You can do this with a whiteboard, a piece of paper, or your comments. What Colt means in his course is literally display for yourself what’s happening. Write out the algorithm and “step through it”, manually moving pointers, etc. If you don’t have a whiteboard, a mirror will do fine. If you don’t have dry erase markers, lipstick or ketchup is a perfect alternative.

Resources and Acknowledgements

My friend Sonya

Colt Steele, Udemy Instructor

How to Solve It, by George Pólya
Flood Timing
By: Thomas Lekhanya
Tags: Thinking, Brainstorming, Problem Solving, Writing Struggles

Last night, I chose to go to bed at 19:30 so I can wake up at 3AM.

I was feeling mentally tired and figured trying to sleep at 8:30PM would’ve been a wasted hour of low mental focus.

And here I am typing away at 4:34AM after reaching the 3AM goal.

I made a decision yesterday about how I’ll be prospecting for clients.

I’d brainstormed ideas and I’ve chosen which ideas I’ll execute.

See I DO want to take massive action Grant Cardone style, however, when I tried that in the past and ended up just feeling confused on what to do on a daily basis because I didn’t really have a direction I bought into.

The 10X way of doing things, to my understanding, means you focus on taking massive action instead of worrying about whether what you’re doing is perfect or not.

Which is great if you’re not someone who leans towards perfectionism and over thinking.

But I’m that kind of guy.

I acknowledge this challenge.

So what will I do?

I’ve chosen to pour all those ideas in my mind on to a page…

Then screening them through the filter of feasibility…

And it’s on THOSE ideas which have “made the cut” that I’ll take massive action.

This way, I’ll know that I’ve already looked at the best, worst, and likely case scenarios and won’t have to think about them DURING my progress of taking action.

The challenge with ideas is that, if you’re like me, they flood your mind at the wrong times…like when you’re trying to sleep, like me last night.

I told myself I’ll write them out the next day.

Why didn’t I write them down?

Because I’d rather risk forgetting those ideas than risk screwing up my sleep and ruining the quality of my whole next day.

No thanks.

I’ve done that before and that shit sucks.

Anyway, I do remember the ideas.

And they’re basically an expansion of the target markets I can approach for my services.

See, my goal is to do copywriting for the health niche.

However, I’ve recently had some mental blocks arise (the same kinds which fucked me over years ago resulting in my leaving writing altogether)…

And I’m going to test solving this problem by pitching my previous skills (online media buying services…ie. Facebook/Google Ads) with the core service, email copywriting, as the “add on sale”.

I.e I’ll pitch these businesses traffic and then sell them on the reality that it’s not enough to get traffic if you can’t convert those into sales.

This way I can make money now WHILE transitioning to copywriting.

Instead of just sitting getting frustrated with these copywriting challenges I’m having right now.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today.

The niches I thought of include stuff in the “adventure” niche…i.e. Helicopter rental….Parachuting…Etc.

I’ll write these ideas out…

Then filter for other criteria (the main one being how HUNGRY the audiences are in these niches) and then form my super basic action plan…and then EXECUTE like a mofo.

Until next time

P.S. I might test sleeping at 7:30 to see what days feel like when I regularly wake up at 3AM.
647. Palindromic Substrings
By: Omar Ayman
Tags: Problem Solving, Dynamic Programming

Solution explanation

Q: Given a string, your task is to count how many palindromic substrings in this string.

The substrings with different start indexes or end indexes are counted as different substrings even they consist of same characters.

Example 1:

Input: "abc"

Output: 3

Explanation: Three palindromic strings: "a", "b", "c".

Example 2:

Input: "aaa"

Output: 6

Explanation: Six palindromic strings: "a", "a", "a", "aa", "aa", "aaa".

Approach:

Using dynamic programming approach we will form a matrix that consists of indices of two pointers in the given list and the values of say M[0][1] starting at index 0 and ending at index 1 is True is this substring is a palindrome else False

s = "abca" n = len(s) dp = [[0] * n for _ in range(n)]

then we loop through this matrix checking two rules:

if the starting and ending values are equal and

if the difference between the two pointers is less than 2, so we can ignore whatever element in the middle and consider the pattern as palindrome as for example “aba” so this is a palindrome even if we changed b to any value

check if the in between pattern is a palindrome as well, i.e. have a true flag in the matrix like for example “abbba” is we are checking from index 0 to 4, if we checked we should have M[0] == M[4] both are equal to “a” the other rule is 4–0< 3 which is False the last rule if the inbetween pattern is a palindrome which is should be True,i.e M[i-1][j+1] = True,M[1][3]
A tale in the life of a UXer — 1
By: Gaayathri Sankar
Tags: Students, Problem Solving, UX, Fun, Learning

Why don’t the developers talk to me?

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, my school entered into a partnership with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) and the Center for Women and Enterprise (CWE) to offer digitisation services. I eagerly volunteered as a UX consultant and developer in this program. This is the tale of my first project.

The project was to help build and modify a website for a vet using the GoDaddy platform. My teammate was a Computer Science student. The initial structure was built by the doctor. So he headed major decisions made on the website.

Business Demands:

Covid page updates

A memory page where clients can add a memory of their deceased pet (the vet would need to review the posts first)

A space where clients can promote their businesses.

A new Twitter and Insta biz account

My Role: Creating mockups of the memory page and the business promotion page.

For the memory page, I created the following two mockups using Figma.
How to Command your Life?
By: Saravana Prasath
Tags: Money, Problem Solving, Life, Life Lessons

There are several questions that you need to answer first:

– Are you someone who attempts things and just leave them when you

are already midway? Did you learn some skills and start some courses

but never put them into action?

-Do you hate being pushed or hurried? Are you always delaying the

deliveries of the project that you handle and never feel bothered

regarding the delay?

-Do you like preparing a lot for your trips or house redecorations?

-Do you linger in the past and look back with longing to those times

when things have been better?

-Do you feel that time is very limited for the things you want to do but

you still spend hours after ours doing nothing or moving like a

zombie?

-Do you love watching the lives of those famous and rich people? Did

you ever wonder why you have this burning desire to learn the details

about the lives of other people and whether you are only trying to fill

in the void of your life in the same way?

-Are you dreaming of doing earth-shattering things but you never get

down into doing them? Click here for the Answers
You Can Do Better Than ‘Memorizing Facts’
By: Zehn Ninos
Tags: Ideas, Personal Development, Thinking, Problem Solving, Personal Growth

Collecting information is no big deal. But knowing how to find the right information is.

Looking for the right information to get work done? The easiest way to find it is to look it up on the internet. Google it, maybe? Or maybe you know someone who can help you out with?

Why duplicate the effort if you know the thing you need is already there? You just have to go and take it.

Delegate a task if someone can do it better without costing you more than the benefit you’ll get in return.

Learn the art of delegation. You don’t need to do everything by yourself. Delegate the works that won’t add any value to your life and doing so will free up time for you to focus your attention where it matters more.

The time you get freed up by delegating your work is invaluable if you can use this time in a better and more efficient way elsewhere.

In this information age, you don’t need to use your brain as the dumping ground for everything but the kitchen sink. The answer you’re looking for is already out there.

You need not spend your time collecting information. But know how to get the right information at the right time for the work at hand.

If you can’t get the right information when you need it, there’s no use collecting a ridiculous amount of information just for showing off.

Invest in yourself to get the knowledge to find the right information. Learn ways to find information wherever you need them. Network with people so you know someone who can get the job done.

Once the Chicago Tribune called Henry Ford an ignoramus. Furious, Ford said, “Prove it.” They then asked him some general knowledge type questions.

Ford couldn’t answer them as he had little formal education. He said, “I don’t know the answers to those questions, but I could find a man in five minutes who does.”

Knowing how to get the information is better than using your mind for a bunch of useless facts.
LeetCode: Populating Next Pointer in Each Node 🚀
By: Gursewak Singh
Tags: Trees, Java, Leetcode, Problem Solving, Programming

Problem Statement

You are given a perfect binary tree where all leaves are on the same level, and every parent has two children. The binary tree has the following definition:

Example

Solution

Explanation

The approach I used is a recursive approach, in each call we are passing references to the left child and the right child of the root node. After connecting the left child and right child, we make the three recursive calls again to connect the left subtree and right subtree of the left child. But before making calls to connect the right child’s left and right subtree, we need to make the connection between the right subtree of the left child and the left subtree of the right child.

Recursion is an intuitive approach to solving tree problems. But the iterative approach can also be implemented for the same problem by level order traversing. Or by using the queues. ✌
What Is Fibonacci Sequence & How to Solve It with Recursion
By: Sam Chen
Tags: Coding, JavaScript, Recursion, Problem Solving, Algorithms

In Mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence is basically the sum of the previous two numbers, starting from 0 and 1. In the image shown above, we can tell right the way the third number is 1, which is also added from its previous two number 0 and 1. From then on, it is a matter of using this pattern to find out what is Fn is assuming n is the number of the sequence. The pattern can be summed up with a equation of Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2 . Knowing what Fibonacci Sequence is, how do we translate this pattern using programming language into codes.

For demonstration purpose, we will be using JavaScript and solve this problem with recursion. What is recursion? Recursion is a way of solving a problem by having a function to call itself. Basically we are creating a function that will call the function itself repeatedly until certain criteria is met, and therefore solving the problem by the end of it. It is in a way similar to a while loop, itself is being called again and again until the loop is ended / broken out of the loop. Let us take a look at the code snippet shown below.
Overview of Integral U-Substitutions in One Dimension
By: Joshua Siktar
Tags: Calculus, Lecture Notes, Problem Solving, Mathematics, Integration

Introduction: where does u-substitution belong in the curriculum?

The change of variables, otherwise known as u-substitution, might be one of the most dreaded topics in calculus, but in my opinion, it’s also one of the most fun. While change of variables techniques extend from relatively simple examples in one dimension to higher-dimensional examples involving matrices, I’m going to stick to examples in one dimension for this article.

In the high school AP curriculum in the United States, this material falls within AP Calculus AB. In college, this material will be covered in Calculus 1 or Calculus 2, depending on your university’s curriculum.

Image courtesy of geralt via Pixabay

The basic idea behind u-substitution is that you are transforming the integrand, so that instead of integrating with respect to one variable and domain, you are integrating with respect to a different one. This relationship is most apparent when solving definite integral problems, though u-substitution is perfectly viable for solving indefinite integrals as well. Here is a more symbolic way to consider how u-substitution works at a high level.

In other words, the key is that in order to do a u-substitution, you need to pick the right function g. I’ll work out two examples of indefinite integrals and one example of a definite integral, then list out some general strategies for handling these seemingly intimidating problems.

Also, I’ll use the terms “u-substitution” and “change of variables” interchangeably. This is done on purpose, since I see both terms used with roughly equal frequency in textbooks and lectures.
The Art of Problem Solving
By: Roberto Porto Lorena
Tags: Root Cause, Problem Solving, Root Cause Analysis

Perform root cause analysis to fix problems for good

Successfully solving a problem requires the skill of taking a step back. When facing a problem, you may want to jump in immediately and start delivering value, but trying to fix something too soon may be futile, or worse, it could create new problems. Over time, I learned the importance of breaking down problems into two components: symptoms and root cause. Differentiating between the two empowers my teams to understand the big picture and find solutions that work in the long-run. My goal is to help explain root causes and cover best practices to fix problems better.

I will start with a definition of Root Cause: “The most basic reason, which if eliminated, would prevent recurrence. The source or origin of an event.” The concept sounds simple though finding root causes is not always straightforward.

In my experience, the biggest impediment to finding a root cause has been the severity of the symptoms a team is experiencing. It doesn’t take much to understand why: when you’re in pain, you want the pain gone more than you want to take the time to be treated for something. When deciding between focusing on symptoms vs. root causes, here’s my recommendation: the extent to which you devote capacity to alleviating symptoms should be determined by the extent to which the severity of the symptoms could impede you from getting to a root cause (e.g., severe profitability/liquidity issues).

The process of working on root causes is called Root Cause Analysis. Tableau has an excellent overview article with the following definition: “Root cause analysis (RCA) is the process of discovering the root causes of problems to identify appropriate solutions.” Some of the methods to conduct RCA include: 5 Whys, Change Analysis/Event Analysis, and Cause and Effect Fishbone diagram. My personal favorite is the 5 Whys approach due to its reliance on open communication. The video below is one of the best resources to quickly understand what it means:

We are all busy dealing with a multitude of competing priorities. When problems arise (both in our personal and professional lives), it’s easy to get lost in the symptoms and not take the time to address the root cause. At the end of the day, leveraging the resources in this article and practicing RCA will help you systematically prevent future issues.
Python Can Be Faster Than C++
By: Nuha Khaled
Tags: Python, Problem Solving, Software Development, Programming, Cplusplus

Python Can Be Faster Than C++

Photo by Jake Givens on Unsplash

Python is a great versatile programming language. Even though python is used most for machine learning problem solving because of its library and high-level language, it is known to be slower than many other languages. Because of its reputation, many would decide to leave the language behind and stick with other options like C++ for program solving.

In this article, I will show you how Python is faster than C++.

Basic Speed Testing

To test the normal speed difference between Python and C++, I will test the execution time of the Generation of primes algorithm. It is a simple algorithm with clear short steps in both languages.

Generation of primes flowchart

Python Implementation

import math

from time import per_counter def is_prime(num):

if num == 2:

return True;

if num <= 1 or not num % 2:

return False

for div in range(3,int(math.sqrt(num)+1),2):

if not num % div:

return False

return True def run program(N):

for i in range(N):

is_prime(i) if __name__ == ‘__main__’:

N = 10000000

start = perf_counter()

run_program(N)

end = perf_counter()

print (end — start)

C++ Implementation

#include <iostream>

#include <cmath>

#include <time.h> using namespace std; bool isPrime(int num)

{

if (num == 2) return true;

if (num <= 1 || num % 2 == 0) return false;

double sqrt_num = sqrt(double(num));

for (int div = 3; div <= sqrt_num; div +=2){

if (num % div == 0) return false;

}

return true; } int main()

{

int N = 10000000;

clock_t start,end;

start = clock();

for (int i; i < N; i++) isPrime(i);

end = clock();

cout << (end — start) / ((double) CLOCKS_PER_SEC);

return 0; }

Results

Python : 80.137 seconds

: 80.137 seconds C++ : 3.174 seconds

Comment

As expected, C++ was 25 times faster than Python in our basic test. So the reputation is true, and this is logical as
Why You Should Play Chess
By: Aren Carpenter
Tags: Chess, Creativity, Data Science, Problem Solving, Learning

Problem Solving

Data science is all about solving problems. It’s why companies are willing to build teams of expensive tech professionals and build custom software or models. These problems can range from detecting fraud, to optimizing a process or an ad campaign, to combating bias in facial recognition models.

These problems are difficult because there is no clear, obvious path. In chess, there is the obvious problem of “win the game”, but also smaller problems to be solved in service of that larger goal. How do I develop my knight? Can I get away with pushing this pawn? Should I castle this turn or keep developing?

Chess requires that you weigh your available options, generate some pros and cons, and follow through on your plan.

Image by Author

If our plan is to control the center e5 square, should we trade some minor pieces with Ne5? Take the pawn on c5? Or pin the knight on c6 with our light-squared bishop?
How did we solve a problem in less than a sec for a retail client with 120+ pharmacy outlets?
By: Uttam Kumar
Tags: Problem Solving Skills, Problem Solving

How did we solve a problem in less than a sec for a retail client with 120+ pharmacy outlets?

The problem was critical and it would have taken a couple of weeks and a substantial investment otherwise.

Not bragging about my team’s #problemsolving skills. Haha. True story and a great case study to learn from.

Problem#0: Client was not able to persuade customers to fill up a detailed form for a loyalty program.

💡Solution? Obvious. To shorten the length of the form with less questions.

No, there are few more layers to the problem.

Problem#1: A good investment was anticipated to print forms for all stores.

Problem#2: What to do with half a million forms they already had?

I was having this discussion with the client at one of their outlets. I had a form in my hand. I took a pen and struck through the unnecessary fields.

The problem was solved. Zero investment, no loss of existing forms.

But was that scalable?

Yes, it was. Each store had 4–5 sales reps with no or less footfalls in the noon. Everyday, a sales guy will strikethrough a dozen forms for the next day. Also, the rep will use a coloured bold marker that will complement the form aesthetically.

#ProblemSolvingGyan

✔️Don’t sit on the problem

✔️Ask for help from other domains

✔️Brainstorm with the devil’s advocates

Connect with me on LinkedIn here
Tough Coding Interview? PEDAC is the way to go
By: Andrea Young
Tags: Coding, Pedac, JavaScript, Problem Solving

Tough Coding Interview? PEDAC is the way to go

For all of my coders in the world, may I introduce to you another way of problem-solving: PEDAC. It can save you time on a problem and broaden your way of thinking.

How many times have you skimmed through a problem and started coding before really understanding the question? For very easy problems that might work. But, for the bigger problems, it will be hard on your brain to keep everything together. This is where PEDAC comes in handy, it helps keep you organized and focused by breaking the problem down into steps: Process, Examples, Data (structure), Algorithm, and Code.

Processing the Problem

First, you have to understand what the problem is asking you to do. NO CODING IS NECESSARY. Rephrase the problem in your own words. You can write it down on a piece of paper, whiteboard, notepad, or whatever works best for you. It is also best to identify the inputs and the outputs of the problem.

Let's try using PEDAC for this problem:

// Write a function that reverses a string passed into it.

function solution(str){



}

Think of the best way you would explain this problem to somebody else.

Ask yourself:

What is a string? What am I inputting? What am I outputting? What am I reversing? Any rules?

Examples and Test Cases

Now that you have a complete understanding of the problem, try to come up with some examples. Testing edge cases are also very important. It would be a real bummer if your code isn’t working because of an edge case you bypassed. Like, what happens when no string is passed in? What about capitals and punctuation? Ask your interviewer about things like this.

‘me’ => ‘em’

‘Hello’ => ‘olleH’

‘ ‘ => ‘ ‘

Data structure

There are usually numerous ways a problem can be solved. This step helps you by selecting what you think is the best data structures for your algorithm. Think of how and what you will use to implement data.

store the substrings in a variable called: newStr

Focus on what makes the most sense for you. Sometimes less isn’t always the best. You can always refactor your solution later.

Algorithm

Your algorithm is your key to success. Not having an algorithm is like not having a blueprint of a building you are constructing. This step is definitely not one to rush. Algorithms can be tricky to create, remember to look back at your examples and data structure if you get stuck.

create an empty str variable called newStr

loop through the str starting at its length -1

increment by counting down

at every index set it equal to the str variable

return the str

Code

Last but not least, the moment you have been waiting for!

Writing code should be a breeze. You made sure you thoroughly understood the problem, made test cases, figured out what data structures to use, and came up with an algorithm.

This may have taken a little longer than expected, but it was definitely worth it!
Event Pair Sum (EVENPSUM)Solution — Codechef December Long Challenge
By: Anubhav Mishra
Tags: Coding, Java, Problem Solving, Programming, Codechef

Problem Statement

You are given two positive integers A and B. Find the number of pairs of positive integers (X,Y) such that 1≤X≤A, 1≤Y≤B and X+Y is even.

Input

The first line of the input contains a single integer T denoting the number of test cases. The description of T test cases follows.

The first and only line of each test case contains two space-separated integers A and B.

Output

For each test case, print a single line containing one integer ― the number of valid pairs.

Constraints

1≤T≤1,000

1≤A,B≤109

Subtasks

Subtask #1 (10 points): A,B≤10

Subtask #2 (10 points): A,B≤1,000

Subtask #3 (80 points): original constraints

Example Input

4

1 1

2 3

4 6

8 9

Example Output

1

3

12

36

Code ( Solution )

The code has been implemented in Java.

import java.util.*; import java.lang.*; import java.io.*; class Codechef { public static void main (String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception { // your code goes here Scanner sc = new Scanner (System.in); int t = sc.nextInt(); long a,b=0; while(t-- > 0){ long o1,o2,e1,e2 =0; a = sc.nextInt(); b = sc.nextInt(); if(a%2==0){ e1 = a/2; o1 = a/2; } else{ o1 = a/2 +1; e1 = a/2; } if(b%2==0) { e2 = b/2; o2 = b/2; } else{ o2 = b/2+1; e2 = b/2; } System.out.println((o1*o2)+(e1*e2)); } } }

Hope you would have liked the article. Please give a clap to this article and follow me for more future programming related blogs.

Referenced Question Link

https://www.codechef.com/DEC20B/problems/EVENPSUM
Top 4 Product Management Books for Improving Your Soft Skills
By: Jackie Guan
Tags: Review, Strategy, Problem Solving, Product Management, Reading

BOOK REVIEWS

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

As 2020 is finally drawing to an end, I thought it’d be fun to compile a list of my favourite product books that I’ve read for this year. In my transition to being a product manager this year, I’ve read a lot of great and not-so-great books. While it’s often suggested to read Inspired or Cracking the PM Interview for Product Managers (especially if you are just starting out in your career), I also wanted to share some hidden gems that will help you in improving your communication skills and product sense. Here they are in no particular order:

Good Strategy Bad Strategy — The Difference and Why it Matters

It is said that a great PM should also be a strategic PM. But what is strategy exactly and how do we formulate one for our products? In Good Strategy Bad Strategy, Rumelt does an excellent job on diving deep into what strategy is and what it is not. In this day and age, we often see a lot of grand statements about developing vision and growth targets, but this is not strategy.

In fact, every good strategy starts with a diagnosis of the obstacles ahead, an approach for dealing with the obstacles and a collection of steps to tackle these challenges. Great strategy is inherently about choice and prioritization, as it focuses resources on certain areas to magnify strengths to win.

Reading this book helped me recognize bad strategy and how to formulate my own good strategies. Fair warning — the book is long (over 400 pages!), but the examples and musings are well argued and worth the read.
Get Set and Code: PREPARING TEST
By: Siddhartha Malladi
Tags: Backtracking, Problem Solving, Online Coding Contest, Codechef

PROBLEM CODE: MATH88

In this article, we are going to see how to solve the problem PREPARING TEST of GET SET AND CODE contest.

Problem link:

Difficulty- Hard

Prerequisites — Backtracking, Verbal Arithmetic, DFS

Problem Description:

Two friends David and Rojer were preparing for their weekly class-test. The are preparing for the math test, but because of continuously adding big integers and solving equations they got exhausted. They decided to take break and play a game. They play a game which will help them in both(for having fun and will also help to prepare for math test). There are N words and they have to find RESULT with the help of these words (just like they have N integers and they have to find integer RESULT=sum of N integers) . Since they are playing this game for the first time! They are not too good in this. Help them in finding weather their RESULT is correct or not.

NOTE:- Total number of unique characters in N words are not greater than 10. All input words and RESULT are in UPPER-CASE only!

Input:

First line consist of an integer N (total number of words).

Next N line contains words with which they have to find RESULT.

Last line consist of the RESULT they found.

Output:

If RESULT is correct print “true” else print “false”.

Sample Input:

3 THIS

IS

TOO

FUNNY

Sample Output:

true

Constraints

2≤N≤102≤N≤10

1≤LengthofTheword≤101≤LengthofTheword≤10

1≤LengthofTheResult≤11

Quick Understanding of problem:

There will be N-words and a result word. We have to assign each character to a number(1 to 9) and replace the characters of N-words and result words with corresponding numbers. If the sum of numbers of N words are equal to the result word number then print True.

EXPLANATION:

Suppose we have an equation; expressions are represented by words on left side and the result on right side. We have to check whether the equation is solvable under the following rules or not −

• Each character is decoded as one digit (0 to 9).

• Every pair of different characters must map to different digits.

• Each word[i] and result are decoded as a number where no leading zeros are present.

• Sum of numbers on the left side will equal to the number on the right side.

• We will check whether the equation is solvable or not.

So, if the input is like words = [“SEND”,“MORE”], result = “MONEY”,

Then the output will be True, as when we map the letters as follows:

Map ‘S’-> 9, ‘E’->5, ‘N’->6, ‘D’->7, ‘M’->1, ‘O’->0,‘R’->8, ‘Y’->‘2’,

Then “SEND” + “MORE” = “MONEY” is same as 9567 + 1085 = 10652.

For more details please refer this LINK

Solution :

Time Complexity — O(n!).

Java Code:
5 Lessons from Decoding of Zodiac Killer “340 Character Ciphers”
By: Piyush Kamal
Tags: Mystery, Life Lessons, Problem Solving, News, Self Improvement

A team of code-breakers has solved a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer.

David Oranchak, a US-based software developer, Sam Blake, a mathematician based in Australia, and Jarl Van Eycke, a programmer based in Belgium, managed to crack Z340, a 340-character cipher that’s one of four such codes attributed to the Zodiac Killer.

The Zodiac Killer was an unidentified serial killer believed to have killed at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late ’60s and was known for sending cryptic messages to law enforcement and journalists.

The decoding of the zodiac ciphers by the trio of amateur math and software codebreakers is a reminder that you need not have the best brains at your disposal to solve a mystery. At times, the intent and perseverance combined with the right set of tools can get you the desired result.

So the next time, if you find yourself in the midst of a complex challenge, let yourself remind of these 5 lessons worth Learning and emulating from Decoding of Zodiac Killer “340 Ciphers.”
🔰4 Proven Ways To Find a Website’s IP Address 🔰
By: R S
Tags: Website, Ip Address, Technology

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

This tutorial teaches you how to find the IP address of a website.You can do this by using your computer’s built-in “traceroute” function, or by downloading and using a free traceroute app for your iPhone or Android.

♨️#1 ON WINDOWS♨️

• Open your PC and click on start menu. Search For “cmd” (Without quotes)

• Right Click on cmd and click on “Run as administration”

• Now enter a command -

ping website address -t

Ex. — ping google.com -t

• Now hit enter. You will get it.

===============================

♨️# 2 ON MAC OS♨️

• Open Spotlight (Click the magnifying glass-shaped icon in the top-right corner of the screen.)

• Search for Network Utility and open it. After that Click on Traceroute tab in network utility.

• Now Enter website address in input box and click on trace button You will see the IP address of website

================================

♨️ #3 ON ANDROID ♨️

• Download and install PingTools Network Utility app then open it.

• Tap ☰. It’s in the upper-left corner of the screen. A pop-out menu will appear.

• Now tap Traceroute Enter Website address and click on trace button

=================================

♨️ #4 ON IPHONE ♨️

•Install and Open Inettools app

•Click on Traceroute then Click on adress bar and input website address (e.g. google.com)

•Click on start. You will see the IP address of website.

=================================

📝Note — Do not try to find ip address of Government sites (.gov, .gov.in, ac.in etc)
Your opportunity is now
Tags: Website Design, Web Hosting, Website, Web Development, Design

Bluehost is one of the largest web hosting services around today. They are one of the top trusted hosting providers, and they currently power over two million websites worldwide.

What is Bluehost used for??

Bluehost is used for hosting sites online, and for purchasing domain names. To have a website you need two things, web hosting, and a domain name.

Lastly, why bluehost??

There are many reasons but most important one is cost of the web hosting services. They offer web hosting services as low as $2.95/mo.
Why Web development ?
By: Karan Pal Singh
Tags: Website, Web Development, Kdsgyt, Front End Development

First of all, Intro.

Hi, My name is Karan Pal Singh. I am a self-taught web developer. This is my first time writing a blog. So, don’t judge me.

Yeah… So let’s get started.

A short and simple answer for “ Why Web development ? ” would be, it’s cool. I was introduced to web development by one of my friends few years back. Since then, I have been checking out web development once in a while. Until this whole pandemic thing happened. I got laid-off. I had a lot of time just to sit, watch movies, eat, get fat. I thought why not put my energy to work and let’s don’t waste the time that I have. Since then, I have been learning web develpoment on my own. So far, I have learned ReactJS and little bit of backend.

The thing that amazes me about web development is the Visual representation in the browser that I get from writing code. That’s what keeps me going every single day.

I always knew that I wanted to code. But couldn’t find a way to get started. Or should I say nothing amazed me as much web development did. Specifically front-end. I just love how I can put things together and make a whole website. Web development is just limited by your imagination. Anything that you can imagine you can create. Whether it’s a simple website or a PWA ( Progressive web app) or even an AR website.

Web development is the tool. You should know how to use it for your cause.
Get Your Website Ready at Lowest Price Over The Internet Ever!
By: Makoua Mohamed
Tags: Review, Website, SEO, Web Development, Website Traffic

Get Your Website Ready at Lowest Price Over The Internet Ever! Makoua Mohamed ·Dec 27, 2020

iAffordable Website Solution.

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You can now take advantage of the attractive offers.

FOLLOW This link for more information and price : https://jvz1.com/c/1802415/362529

Client Satisfaction is Our Motto

Satisfaction is our priority

Free Consultation

Talk with our experts

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lowest price with iAffordable Website Solution.

https://jvz1.com/c/1802415/362529
Your First website with Flask
By: Nitish Kumar
Tags: Website, Pyth, Python Framework, Flask

Flask is one of the most popular web framework in Python.

Its is very east that you can deploy your website in fewer lines of code.

Install Flask in your system.

pip install flask

File structure is important.

In this tutorial we will learn how to write your flask web app.

=>Application folder

==>Hello.py

==>templates

====> hello.html

from flask import Flask app = Flask(__name__)

def index():

return render_template(‘hello.html’)



if __name__ == ‘__main__’:

app.run(debug = True) @app .route(‘/’)def index():return render_template(‘hello.html’)if __name__ == ‘__main__’:app.run(debug = True)

and now make some simple html page

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>Your first Flask Website</title> </head> <body> <h1> Follow @nitish_leeo at Instagram </h1> </body> </html>

Thank you !!
Bloodline — Family Tree Creator. Why do you need to care?
Tags: Android, Website, Application, iOS, Family Tree Creator

You and I aren't interested in shit so let’s dive into the main topic directly ✊.

Why do we need to create a family tree?

Fun: While creating a family tree you discover more about yourself and about your history. Keep Netflix aside for some time and spend with elders to talk about your Ancestors and am sure you will get to know more interesting stories than many web series 😅.

Importance: It’s a record of your lineage, showing the members of your family throughout recent, and even distant, history. Many people know Akbar, Alexander The Great, etc., but don’t know about our ancestors lived at that point in time and there is no way we get that information back as it is lost forever. Because of the Technology now we will able to store info and pass it on to further generations.

Within six months of release, Bloodline now supports in a variety of devices and manages around 50,000 users data from 150+ countries around the globe.