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No Recursion, No Table, Still DP? My Shift From Brute Force to Intuition
- The author reflects on their journey with Dynamic Programming (DP) and their shift in thinking from a recursive approach to a more intuitive one.
- Initially, the author thought DP involved recursion, memoization, tabulation, and space optimization, but a recent problem challenged this pattern.
- The problem involved finding the maximum of the minimum for each window size in an array.
- The author's initial brute-force solution failed, leading them to consider a new perspective.
- By fixing elements instead of window sizes, the author was able to determine the range of window sizes where an element is the minimum.
- This approach utilized monotonic stacks to optimize the solution.
- The author realized that DP is more about avoiding repeated work and finding efficient ways to reuse calculations.
- They acknowledge that DP can appear in various forms, such as using stacks, loops, or different problem-solving approaches.
- The author started noticing patterns like utilizing prefix sums, monotonic stacks, reevaluating nested loops, and reusing information.
- They emphasize that DP is not just about following a set formula, but about approaching problems cleverly.
- The author humorously reflects on their previous perception of DP and how they have evolved to focus on smarter thinking over traditional methods.
- Despite facing challenges and TLE errors in the process, the author appreciates the growth and change in their problem-solving mindset.
- The author invites others to learn more about the problem that altered their approach.
- Overall, the journey showcases a shift from rigid DP methodologies to a more adaptable and creative problem-solving mindset.
- DP is portrayed as a means of avoiding redundant work and approaching challenges in innovative ways.
- The author concludes by highlighting the importance of thinking strategically and efficiently in problem-solving endeavors.
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