Skip to main content
Software Engineering

Questions tagged [problem-solving]

Ask Question

Problem solving encompasses a number of techniques known as algorithms, heuristics, root cause analysis, etc.

89 questions
Newest Active Bountied Unanswered
Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
6 votes
3 answers
377 views

I ran into the following issue where a keyboard shortcut I was used to was no longer working in Ubuntu. That's just an example. For programming, this kinds of thing happens a lot, but it also happens ...
Alan Turing's user avatar
  • 1,533
18 votes
3 answers
3k views

When under a particularly strict programming deadline (like an hour), if I panic at all, my tendency is to jump into coding without a real plan and hope I figure it out as I go along. Given enough ...
GlenPeterson's user avatar
  • 15k
8 votes
4 answers
2k views

Problem number 18 from Project Euler's site is as follows: By starting at the top of the triangle below and moving to adjacent numbers on the row below, the maximum total from top to bottom is 23. 3 ...
Valentino Ru's user avatar
  • 183
2 votes
3 answers
5k views

This is actually a solved problem, but I want to understand why my original method didn't work (hoping someone with more knowledge can explain). (Keep in mind, I've not very experienced in 3d ...
mitim's user avatar
  • 143
5 votes
3 answers
4k views

I am a trainee. According to my teacher to solve a problem we should go through following steps: Create Algorithm (optional) Create a Datatable: By analyzing the problem, create main concepts in those ...
Mr_Green's user avatar
  • 181
22 votes
6 answers
2k views

In programming we're often faced with a choice: cover each conceivable use case individually, or solve the general problem: Its obvious that solving the immediate problem is faster, however creating a ...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
  • 1,043
3 votes
2 answers
228 views

I have a c++/cli tcp client application sending a data in a specific format like L,20100930033425093,-5.929958,13.164021 to a main application on port 9000.The main application is actually done by the ...
ShivShambo's user avatar
  • 131
7 votes
6 answers
3k views

I have recently finished an undergraduate course in computer science and I am looking for a job. During the search I encountered several interesting (and tough) problems that needed clever algorithms ...
josh88's user avatar
  • 97
0 votes
2 answers
3k views

I noticed that every developer implements a somewhat different flowchart for solving programming problems. By flowchart I mean a defined system of techniques that the developer goes through in a ...
nurnachman's user avatar
  • 147
9 votes
6 answers
1k views

I solve many problems, mostly from Top Coder. I will get answers for many, but most times I end up with an inefficient solution. In real-world implementations - does it really matter that a solution ...
Ant's's user avatar
  • 732
3 votes
6 answers
4k views

What is the best way to ensure that programmers ask for help when they get stuck on a problem, rather than spending too much time trying to figure something out when they've hit a wall? I'm ...
mkopala's user avatar
  • 141
30 votes
13 answers
10k views

This is a somewhat subjective quesiton but I'd love to hear feedback/opinions from either interviewers/interviewees on the topic. We split our technical interview into 4 parts. Write Code, Read & ...
Eoin Campbell's user avatar
  • 2,128
-3 votes
2 answers
427 views

in this question OP has presented a site where some puzzle are available. He described the problem about solving them. I was curious is that really so problematic. The first one was really easy, so I ...
Damian Leszczyński - Vash's user avatar
  • 147
7 votes
4 answers
3k views

I am doing some personal research on Byzantine Faults. I am trying out algorithms from various research papers which present algorithms for consensus in distributed systems like this one. For this i ...
Chani's user avatar
  • 1,465
1 vote
4 answers
350 views

Several times after posting over at Stack Overflow, I have found that the problem I have is somewhat specific, and may have issues rooted elsewhere in my code. These are very difficult to solve with a ...
Jumhyn's user avatar
  • 162
7 votes
7 answers
8k views

Are there any resources for paying more attention to detail as a software developer? (Especially edge cases, or small mistakes in code, details in the problem description, ramifications for certain ...
Cervo's user avatar
  • 1,748
42 votes
12 answers
5k views

In another question I asked recently about best practices for whiteboarding, there was general consensus that thinking out loud while coming up with the answer was the best strategy. Indeed, long ...
Bjorn's user avatar
  • 727
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

I am a software engineer with a couple of years of experience. However I feel my problem solving skills need to be improved. To put in crude terms given facts A and fact B I have difficulty in ...
andrew liu's user avatar
  • 51
0 votes
3 answers
1k views

I had taken a telephonic interview and the interviewer has given some problem for which I was supposed to give him the algorithm. Since its was a telephonic interview and I had no paper or pen, so I ...
prasonscala's user avatar
  • 1,631
14 votes
7 answers
10k views

I'm continually becoming overwhelmed by large projects, once they reach a certain level of complexity. Once I reach a certain point in a project, my progress slows to a crawl and I find myself ...
pup's user avatar
  • 1,722
1 vote
11 answers
994 views

Why is writing code when you encounter a tricky problem considered "bad" programming practice? And why is thinking a problem completely through on paper or in your head before you write code "good" ? ...
Tejaswi Yerukalapudi's user avatar
  • 113
12 votes
10 answers
843 views

Yesterday I spent a good part of the afternoon trying to fix a bug, which I thought to be trivial. I was going around in circles, not having a clue what was wrong. Rewriting large parts of the code. ...
Jeremy French's user avatar
  • 1,160
62 votes
15 answers
13k views

You ever try to implement something simple but for some strange reason it doesn't work. So you try a possible solution but then something else doesn't work. You keep trying different workarounds but ...
Community wiki
4 revs, 2 users 96%
JD Isaacks
40 votes
10 answers
2k views

Perfectionism may be good and bad when programming. When and where do you draw the line when you are problem solving? When do you decide when a solution is overkill, too general or simply too ...
Amir Rezaei's user avatar
  • 11.1k
0 votes
1 answer
228 views

Just to be clear, I don't think this should be question better suited for stackoverflow.com simply because there's not a single answer but a wide range of possible solutions, making this question far ...
Neil's user avatar
  • 22.9k
50 votes
26 answers
97k views

Everyone says the same thing: "a real programmer knows how to handle real problems." But they forget how they learned this ability or where: it's not taught in schools. What can I do to improve my ...
Community wiki
15 revs, 3 users 68%
gcc
35 votes
9 answers
2k views

As a programmer, I find myself in the dilemma where I want make my program as abstract and as general as possible. Doing so usually would allow me to reuse my code and have a more general solution ...
Nayrb's user avatar
  • 2,514
13 votes
10 answers
973 views

I really enjoy programming games and puzzle creators/games. I find myself engineering a lot of these problems the same way and ultimately using similar technique to program them that I'm really ...
Nayrb's user avatar
  • 2,514
59 votes
12 answers
12k views

What language, in your opinion, allows the average programmer to output features with the least amount of hard-to-find bugs? This is of course, a very broad question, and I'm interested in very broad ...
Community wiki
2 revs
Magnus Wolffelt
5 votes
5 answers
10k views

I'm a beginner learning Java and after reading the docs I'm trying to solve some of the problems at codingbat.com. Some I managed to solve pretty quickly in a matter of seconds but some not quite. The ...
user avatar
40 votes
28 answers
4k views

Which world most important algorithms have contributed most to humankind in past decades? I thought this is a good general knowledge for a developer to know about. Update: If possible, please keep ...
Community wiki
9 revs, 3 users 57%
Amir Rezaei
25 votes
9 answers
25k views

This is happening in every team. For some reasons, conflicts arise in the team and they affect the overall motivation and productivity. What is your recommended approach to solve that common problem?...
user avatar
12 votes
10 answers
3k views

In every problem solving there's always people who think differently, who come with a 6th option when only 5 were suggested by others, who think "out of the box". Please tell how one can achieve such ...
Denys S.'s user avatar
  • 621
2 votes
3 answers
791 views

Is it possible to calculate shadow areas of buildings or simulate shadows of buildings in a city, using the heights of these buildings and the sun angle and azimuth? The basic light tracing concept ...
user avatar
5 votes
4 answers
3k views

All, Given a problem statement, when I start of with the analysis and design, I tend to think too much about the various functionalities associated with the task (sometimes not even mentioned in the ...
name_masked's user avatar
  • 289
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

I'm looking for something that allows me to work out an algorithm on a computer similar to how I would do it on a whiteboard. At work, I have a huge whiteboard that I can use for this, but at home, I ...
Chinmay Kanchi's user avatar
  • 6,173
4 votes
3 answers
227 views

I've had a couple of times in the time I've working, moments when I get an error ocurring in just 1 computer and it often takes me hours or days to figure out because it is (or at least seems) an ...
Luis Armando's user avatar
  • 635
9 votes
7 answers
1k views

There is a school of thought in linguistics that problem solving is very much tied to the syntax, semantics, grammar, and flexibility of one's own native spoken language. Working with various ...
Jé Queue's user avatar
  • 3,917
11 votes
5 answers
20k views

Do you think it's a good practice to implement a possibilty to allow an administrator user to login in as another user, by-passing password? This could by implemented by a master password or a ...
user avatar

1
2
3