How do I handle problems that require fast input/output operations?
Fast I/O is crucial for competitive programming. Use buffered I/O techniques to avoid time-consuming I/O operations.
Fast input/output (I/O) operations are crucial in competitive programming when you have to deal with large data sets. Slow I/O operations can easily cause time limit exceeded (TLE) errors, even if your algorithm is efficient. One of the most common techniques is to use buffered I/O. In C++, you can use scanf and printf instead of cin and cout for faster input and output. In Python, using sys.stdin.read and sys.stdout.write is faster than input() and print(). You can also batch outputs by storing them in a string or array and then printing them all at once. These I/O optimization techniques help improve performance in problems with heavy data processing requirements.
