Hello everyone,
I've been practicing competitive programming for the past two years, but I feel like I've hit a plateau and I'm not making any progress. I've tried various techniques, such as practicing regularly, analyzing my mistakes, and learning from others, but nothing seems to be working.
I'm reaching out to the Codeforces community to ask for advice. Have you ever experienced a similar situation, and if so, what steps did you take to overcome it? Are there any particular resources or techniques that you found helpful?
I would appreciate any advice or guidance that you can offer. Thank you in advance!
Thank you for the dislikes! Although it's not the feedback I was hoping for, it's still a form of feedback that I can learn from. Thank you again!
I think the dislikes are because of the title of your blog.
Why did you put a question mark in the title? Title kind of suggests that you are giving advice or something like that.
Should have been something like:- "I am not able to make progress in CP. need help" or something which sounds more humble.
Thank you for taking the time to read and provide feedback.
I understand that the title of my blog may have come across as giving advice, and I apologize for any confusion or misunderstandings that may have resulted from it. Your suggestion for a more humble and direct title is well taken, and I will certainly keep it in mind for future posts.
Your feedback has been very helpful to me, and I appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts with me.
How are you practicing?
Thank you for asking. Here is my long story short on how I've been practicing programming. It all started back in 11th grade when I came across programming in my school curriculum. I was immediately drawn to it and started learning the basics of C/C++ programming languages.
Before joining college, I was familiar with the basics of programming and started exploring more on my own. At the time, I wasn't aware of any coding platforms or resources, but I had a good grasp of theory and basic implementation.
Later, I discovered the world of competitive programming and started looking for ways to get involved. I came across helpful resources to start with, such as HackerRank, where I solved over 180 language-based problems. I also began learning data structures and algorithms in C++ from YouTube videos. I found that I had a talent for learning quickly and was able to complete up to tree DFS graphs (Dijkstra etc) only through implementation, not yet through problem-solving.
After searching for resources and roadmaps, I discovered websites like Codeforces, CodeChef, and Atcoder. I started my Codeforces journey by solving problems from rating 800 on the A2OJ Ladders Div2/A section. I solved 60-70 problems at this level before moving on to the next rating. I continued solving problems and participating in contests on Codeforces and CodeChef. Although I was only able to solve 1-2 problems in virtual and real contests, I kept practicing daily for 6-7 hours.
During this time, I also started solving problems on CSES Problem Set and came across various techniques and algorithms. Although I was not improving much on Codeforces, I became a 4-star coder on CodeChef after this practice. However, I became a newbie again after a contest. Despite setbacks, I kept solving problems daily and started moving to the next rating problem once I was comfortable with the previous one.
Still not seeing improvement on real contests, I took a break and started solving problems on LeetCode, where I have solved over 450 problems and currently hold a rating of 1851.
So you have practiced more than me :/
You may want to try this roadmap.
It was during the time of COVID-19 when universities were online.
Thank you for suggesting this roadmap TheScrasse. I thank your input and will definitely consider checking it out.