Project Euler #194: Coloured Configurations

  • + 1 comment

    Thanks Oleg, completely agree.

    For those of us who have just started in Project Euler, is there a previous problem that you can hint at as the one which can help to get better understanding of the topics involved in this one?

    • Challenge Author
      + 2 comments

      is there a previous problem

      I don't think so. However I cannot claim that my solution is the only right solution.

      My overall advice - if you are just starting with Project Euler - please choose the problems with the proper level difficulty for you. Unfortunately, the difficulty level stated in the problem descriptions may be misleading. For me, a better indicator of a problem difficulty is the number of people with 100% solution score for the problem. You also have to discount by the time period that the problem was available and the problem domain - whether you consider yourself as an expert in the number theory or graphs and so forth.

      The problems currently available at Project Euler do cover a wide range of difficulty levels and almost everybody can find something interesting/challenging for him/her. Almost - may be with the exception of @uwi, @zemen, and @Gennady :)

      • + 0 comments

        well, I guess I meant "what previous problems should I pay attention to, to get a better understanding of graph colouring and related topics", in line with the original project Euler idea that subsequent problems teach you more and more about the topic

        I've solved #193, which seems to be pretty hard based on %% solved, but I must admit graph colouring looks as a completely different beast to me

        Don't give any hints. We will get there. Eventually )

      • + 0 comments

        Yea, the difficulty level seems indeed misleading.

        I started from the new Euler problems.

        I was surprised that for one problem I had to resort to an old maths book which I had last read by chance as an antique original in an Aachen mathematical institute's library many years ago. Now I could apply it to a real problem in my life. What a joy.. :-)

        One of the newer problems seems to need implementing ideas from an < 10 yrs old arXiv paper (if you are not gifted enough to have them yourself :-) This came a bit unexpected. Until that point I did not expect research level knowledge to be needed. And it is listed as Medium. 8*)

        I also started to solve Euler problems from the early numbers, to have an occasional morale boost. They seem much, much simpler so far.