Coding Competitions

Question

For those of you who compete in other sites like Hacker Rank, or Code Forces for example when you see a problem statement and see the inputs and outputs. Here my question in bullet-point format.

1. How do you read a problem statement ?
2. How do you know which algorithm to use ??
3. What goes through your head looking at these problems ???
4. Do you write psuedocode or head straight to coding ????
5. How do you pass all the testcases presented ?????

Simple steps i would like to know all programmers are different in how they tackle problems so just some insight on your algorithmic thinking would help.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You ask excellent questions.I have never thought about it.
It has always been a very natural and organic process.

I'll try and categorise my process

Answer 2

On point 4.
A trick I've learnt is to just create code that prints the input to see what testcases are used.
Many sites disable this option.

Answer 3

Thank you Louis i am all about curiosity what other programmers think ???