Improvement of Editorial for difficult problems

general
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copy pasted from codeforces https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/75189
consider DIV2-C,D as easy problems of long challenge (3 star to 4 star) , E,F as difficult(5 star to 7 star) and read this .It is applicable to codechef also.

This post is on serious issue. Currently my level is DIV2-C,D (during contest i am mostly able to solve C and sometimes D) . Whenever i fail to solve any problem (say D) and i see editorial i am able to understand the solution very quickly most of the times .

But when i see solution(editorial) for problem E or F , sometimes i find difficult to understand the editorial itself ! Why ? Because most authors write solution in a way which can be only understood by person who is able to solve problems of that difficulty level most of the time .

But the problem is it becomes difficult for people to improve fast.They either do not upsolve or take days to figure out what editorial want’s to say . Now some RED people might say that editorial don’t explain fully or give proper details because they want YOU TO THINK . But editorial can be written by adding spoilers such that a person first tries on his own to understand and then if not able to he can read the spoiler .Please see following editorial written by T.M William Link .In difficult problems authors can explain the solution using an concrete example.I want such type of editorial on coding platforms.That is education ! First try on your own and if not able to succeed seek the help ! you can’t keep figuring out whole life.

May be time is issue for writing good editorials .But quality > time .Take 1/2 day for releasing the tutorial but write them properly .

You can see past contests and observe that number of people who solve a problem (D/E/F) is proportional to the quality of editorial .Else people keep commenting to explain them properly in simple words etc .

I will also accept suggestions from people on how to read editorial properly .

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I, personally don’t have any difficulty in reading the editorials of questions. Especially by @tmwilliamlin. Even @vijju123 is very good(probably the best in the world) (copy pasted by Carlsberg ad :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: ) To be honest, I am also at your level, I can sometimes solve D in codeforces div 2, but easily solve C.
Reasons why I don’t have any difficulty:

  1. He has a video editorial on every solution(At least nowadays) (Video editorials are easier to understand rather than hand written ones)
  2. He explains his editorial in a point-wise format. By point-wise I mean, he first explains one point fully, then the other one, etc. This implies his editorials are well organized.
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Are you really demanding a better editorial than the one you linked from TM William? It has video explanation, example explanation, 2 quick explanations, 2 extended explanations and detailed insertions of dp transitions! More would be abuse! :crazy_face:

Of course, there are subjective considerations, some would find some explanations easier, others don’t, but come on … it’s hard to me to understand that you don’t see that is a great editorial for a competitive programing problem

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