I'm trying to improve my problem-solving skills on platforms like LeetCode, but I often encounter timeouts on my solutions. It would be helpful to receive immediate feedback on whether my solution is correct instead of just a timeout, which can be super frustrating. Sometimes, even when I follow a solution step-by-step, it still times out. Is there a better way to approach this, or is this just how these platforms work? It's tough to learn in such a competitive environment.
2 Answers
When your solution times out, it's basically a sign that it might not be optimal. This can actually be a good learning tool because it pushes you to write more efficient code. A tip I use is to add print statements to see how far my code gets before timing out and which inputs are problematic.
The reason your program times out is that running the solution requires server resources, and each platform has limits in place, like execution time. They can't determine if your solution is right or wrong until all test cases are run, so if something takes too long, it just times out. This also prevents infinite loops from bogging down the system.
I get that, but it can still be really annoying when you're trying your best.
Definitely! That kind of feedback can help improve your coding.