How to solve Olympiad problems in programming?

Question

IT education

I'm trying to solve Olympiad problems in programming and I'm faced with the fact that I don't understand how to do it right.
Usually they are divided into two types - the first, those that I immediately know how to solve. And here is the whole solution - just start writing code, debugging, etc., no problem.
And the second ones are those for which I either don’t know the solution or even don’t understand the condition right away. (hard level on hackerrank or F,G on codeforces) How to solve such "correct"? That's right - in the sense, to improve not only the coding skill, but also some kind of theoretical part?
Does it make sense to first try to come up with a solution yourself or googling the theory right away?
If you don’t google right away, then after what time (how many attempts to solve)?

Answer 1

Take the problem book , strictly in order. Think evening. Test on informatics.mccme.ru Download the book, there are solutions. Disassemble. As a result, the task should be done (all tests passed).