smart-mob's blog

Contest for low ages
By smart-mob, 10 years ago, In English

Hello everybody . I'm 15 year old and it's really hard for me to participate in contests as well as university students snd other older users . Can you tell me some programming websites that I can participate with users with the same age as me ?

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10 years ago, # |
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15 is not "low age" and surely programming skills are not the matter of age. I believe tourist was already champion of several contests at your age — read wiki for more info.

And surely you should not expect any site providing contests "for only young age" — since how do you think age of contestants could be verified while they are at different places on earth?

So you'd better start solving problems of level Div2 A and B here and reading editorials of previous contests. Well if you really seek a list of very simple problems you can find one here — but they are mostly so primitive that I dare not call it "contest".

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    10 years ago, # ^ |
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    You exampled tourist .but tourist is not an usual user . He is surely younger than you but you have never managed to reach his place . So you can't example him to say that it's possible .

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      10 years ago, # ^ |
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      but you have never managed to reach his place

      Surely, I even can't program when I was 15 and had no computer to try. I thought I'll be physicist... :)

      Nevertheless age of 15 is more advantage than problem because the brain catches new abstract ideas faster... You can create another post and ask how many people there are of 15 or less.

      But see, you started complaining that you are too young. When I pointed that you are not, you continue complaining that you are "too ordinary". What next? You'd better decide whether you are going to learn or to complain!

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    10 years ago, # ^ |
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    And surely you should not expect any site providing contests "for only young age" — since how do you think age of contestants could be verified while they are at different places on earth?

    Actually TopCoder had a TopCoder High School SRMs and tournaments some time ago: http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=Static&d1=hs&d2=home. But anyway the level of competitors was high.

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10 years ago, # |
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I completely agree with RodionGork.

I'm 15 years old, too. And as you see, I still try to participate in contests here. You can start with solving some problems in archive.

So, good luck. Do your best!

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    10 years ago, # ^ |
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    Ah, thanks! I just wanted to tell I know some pupils from my school (PhTS) who perform well at CF at the same age. But you were faster... :)

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10 years ago, # |
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You can participate in the Lunchtime contests organized by codechef.com on the last sunday of every month.

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10 years ago, # |
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I think the reason that you want a "low age contest" is that, as a 15-year-old student, you are at a disadvantage in an algorithm contest, as other university students or veteran users are familiar with data structures/algorithms, and skilled in programming. However, I'd like to point out that, the goal we participate in a contest is not only to compete against those experienced coders and beat them, but to improve our programming skills and learn algorithms that we do not know yet. It may be "cruel" to compete with other older users as a 15-year-old student, but sometimes, if you set the goal a little higher than your capability, you will make progress quickly! So, be brave to take part in the contest, practice, practice and practice. Then ranking at a high position in a contest is just a matter of time. Good luck!

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10 years ago, # |
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I completely agree with the posts above, at the age of 15 (I'm 16 now) I managed to get Silver in IOI. Codeforces has very nice set of problems you see, even if you can't solve enough problems to improve your rating, that shouldn't demotivate you. When I first participated in Codeforces I could only solve A and B, never C. It's all about practicing, if you can't solve a problem there are always editorials or explanations. Just remember that rating isn't the most important thing, after all you are here to learn.

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10 years ago, # |
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It's totally fine that you have hard time, and I don't think it makes much sense to say "15 year old students can do competitive programming. Look at tourist and other IOI medalists".

I am a 3rd year university student, and I don't think many of my CSci classmates will find Div2 A, B very easy.

I study Math/CSci at my college and have been working on codeforces almost everyday for half a year ish , yet I often have hard time solve Div 2 C/D.

I may be just an idiot, but the point I want to make here is that not everyone find it easy to compete here.

If you find it too hard, you might want to just stick with studying math, other kind of programming, anything else you are interested in for now.

You can start working on competitive programming whenever you are ready :)

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