Understood the way to approach problems

Today, early morning gave a bi-weekly contest on LC and solved one question (this is my 2nd LC contest ever). Then after contest got over,saw solutions in discussion section and understood that these are not unsolvable at my current stage and i too could have solved that if i hadn't approached it the way i was .
I realised that after reading a problem , i try finding pattern in question and then think of if to use B.S /cycle sort or anything else . That get me stuck to solve the basic problem that could be solved using Brute force cause i waste my whole time applying pre thought approach. I understood that i should understand and think of each line in question itself and should understood what the question actually wants as output and how it wants to get it . Later I did,3sum,4sum, and 3sum closest using my new approach and found it very useful .

If you have read it till here, congrats you are a serious lad .Please give better approach if you have , Let's share ideas .