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Need Help! in reaching Expert
By power_verse, history, 8 months ago, In English

I am currently a specialist at Codeforces, and I have been practicing for about 1 year. I am able to solve most problems up to 1600 rating, but I am struggling to reach expert rating.

I have the following questions:
1. What is the best strategy to follow to reach expert rating at Codeforces?

2. How many questions should I do and in how much time in DIV2 and DIV3 contest?

3. What rating questions should I practice?(Please share some quality problems websites or links)

4. Is it okay to practice 1800 and 1900 rated questions, even if I am not able to solve most of them?

5. How much time should I spend on a problem before I give up and look at the editorial?

6. Should I leave a problem and try it again on another day if I am not able to solve it?

7. Sometimes I am able to solve problems after the contest(easily) that I was not able to solve during the contest. How can overcome this problem?

I would appreciate any advice that you can give me.

Thanks :)

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8 months ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by power_verse (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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8 months ago, # |
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Spoiler
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    8 months ago, # ^ |
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    • Practice problems 100-200 over your current rating
    • Give virtuals
    • Most importantly, ALWAYS UPSOLVE
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      8 months ago, # ^ |
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      Should i go for specific topics or do any problmes of 100-200 above my current rating..

      Can you specify some topics.. Btw Thanks:)

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        8 months ago, # ^ |
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        No specific topics, try to get your hands dirty with adhoc and basic math questions, that should (almost) always get you through A and B, with sufficient speed.

        I used this ladder to get to green, also try to understand the logic and reasoning behind a solutioin, DO NOT SKIM thru problems, goodluck.

        You can also check out this laddder

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8 months ago, # |
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You can read this comment.

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8 months ago, # |
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Just choose the round that you are at good condition and keep practicing:)

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8 months ago, # |
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Master

  1. Binary Searching

  2. Greedy Methods which involve Sorting

  3. Basics of Dynamic Programming

  4. Moderate Number Theory, Primes, Combinatorics

  5. Bit Manipulation

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    8 months ago, # ^ |
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    But what about bit manipulation? I think it's important and I've seen it appear a lot in recent rounds.

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8 months ago, # |
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no way...

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8 months ago, # |
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how do i improve i can do 2100 in practice but i struggle with b and c in contest

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8 months ago, # |
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  1. Upsolving is super important, upsolve 1 to 2 question after each contest. Try not to code before thinking of a proper algorithm, this prevents you from going in a totally wrong direction in a contest.

  2. Div2 depends on difficulty, to become an expert you have to solve at least 3 and sometimes even 4 questions in div2 but while giving the contest don't really thing about how many you have to solve just enjoy the question read through at least the first 4 of them. In div3 keep a good pace and aim for 5.

  3. 200, 300+ your peak, try to solve the questions from the recent contests.

  4. yes its always good to solve very difficult questions if until you are not able to solve any and become mentally depressed

  5. 2-3 days is good amount try a question for a few hours then delay it to the next day give it all your thought and resources

  6. yes its absolutely fine and I personally think that this is a better practice

  7. Best way is to have full focus during a contest and try to think of different ways to approach the problem rather than being stuck on a single approach. Plus everyone has bad days so there is no real way to stop this

Hope this helps :)

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    8 months ago, # ^ |
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    Wow, thanks man!! Definitely, this will help us a lot...

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