For two consecutive days, we tackled a maze problem with a difficulty level of introductory+/advanced. The code submission from the day before was only 40% correct.
Yesterday, I worked with my son again on the issue regarding the maze’s endpoint. As a result, we performed two DFS (Depth-First Search) runs, and the sample data passed, but the final submission still showed a timeout.
We initially thought our approach was sound, yet we still encountered a timeout, and today we spent quite a bit of time on this problem again.
Given our current skill level, we were unable to produce the correct answer, so I advised my son to temporarily abandon this problem and move on to others.
After yesterday’s session, my son finished his problems, took a shower, and by the time he was ready for bed, it was already eleven o’clock.
Last night, he even mumbled that he was very tired.
The night before was also late, and yesterday was similarly late. With this continuous late-night work, I could sense my son’s fatigue.
He usually falls asleep almost instantly after lying down in bed every night.
The alarm at 7 AM never seems to wake him up; I have to call him several times before he can get up, still half-asleep.
I believe I need to better manage the timing of his evening study sessions; we can’t keep doing this every night.
We should try to tackle difficult problems during the weekends, as we have more time to study and don’t need to restrict ourselves to the evenings; we can also work on them during the day on weekends.
Furthermore, as we progress to more challenging problems, the level of difficulty will exceed what I can assist him with in terms of coding, and he will need professional teachers for instruction.
Therefore, I think we should focus on learning C++ concepts rather than just increasing the difficulty of the problems.
After all, my son still has many topics to cover; he only recently started learning dynamic programming, including backpack DP, linear DP, interval DP, tree DP, union-find, binary trees, and other topics that he hasn’t even begun to study.
It seems I need to ensure he completes the online course content first, and then seek out offline training institutions for advanced learning.
I’m not sure if this arrangement is appropriate. Can knowledgeable parents provide some advice?
November 26, 2025
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