Wxssim's blog

From 0 to ICPC in 1 Year
By Wxssim, 6 weeks ago, In English

Welcome to my first blog!!
     I'll be sharing my journey in the cp world and how I managed to qualify to ICPC 1 year and 3 months (sorry for the clickbait) into my cp career. If you're curious what it took to achieve this, or if you're looking for some motivation or inspiration, this blog is for you :)
A special thank you to ALnQ417 for helping me cook this blog <3

Starting My CP Career: LCPC 2023 Fail

     One month before LCPC 2023 (Lebanese Collegiate Programming Contest), my university informed me about the competition. I was a second year student at that time so I quickly formed a team and registered, not knowing anything about the competition at all. I had high hopes, thinking it would be something similar to what I was studying at university and I assumed I'd do well.

     Fast forward a month, I solved the easiest 4 problems in the competition and ranked 27th out of the 50 teams that participated, I was infuriated.

     Turns out, the contest required knowledge of a lot of algorithms, most of which I was unfamiliar with. There were a few problems on dynamic programming, trees, graphs, and combinatorics. One problem required FFT, but no one managed to solve it. I was completely shocked to realize that I had encountered few, if any, of these topics during my university classes.

     One thing I absolutely hate is losing. From that day forward, I didn't stop practicing (as you can see by stalking my heatmap), driven by one goal: redeeming myself and avenging my poor perf.

Practice + Progress

     Practicing for me has always been something enjoyable—a hobby more or less. I dedicated several (3 to 8) hours from my day to practice on CF and CSES. While I could write an entire blog about my practice method (and maybe I will!), I don't want that to be the focus of this blog, but here's a brief description:

  • CSES: Used to learn new algos/techniques/tricks.
  • Codeforces: Used to practice what I learn from CSES + randomized practice.
  • Editorials:
    • CSES problems: I read editorials after spending 3-24 hours thinking about the problem.
    • Codeforces problems: I do not read the editorial before solving the problem, regardless of how little progress I'm making. I do check it when solved to see if I could learn new approaches/coding styles.

     Thanks to this practice routine, 9 months into my cp career, I hit CM, ranking first in Lebanon :D. That was my first major achievement, and that gave me a huge confidence boost. If you take a look at my rating graph after I hit CM, you'll notice that I did not lose points in a single contest until I reached M 1.5 months later. In total, it took me 10.5 months to hit M!

rating_graph_1


LCPC 2024

     We had two kickoff contests before the actual LCPC. My team ranked second in the first one, and managed to jump to first in the second. LCPC 2024 was originally scheduled for the 5th of October, but due to the war in the country, it was postponed till 2nd of November and eventually held online on the 9th of November. This was disappointing as I was looking to meeting fellow Lebanese CPers, most notably (sorry if I missed your name):


     The contest (group) consisted of 15 problems, most of which are very easy, with only 2 hard problems—unfortunately, one of them turned out to be the same as a Codeforces problem. My team (yury and CodePrinceX) and I, sped through 14 problems in 3 hours but we couldn't get the last one :'(.

     We managed to rank second and lost on time to Boomerang from AUB (DonC, J_Nas, and okandil21). However, this result meant that we qualified to ACPC 2024!!

ACPC 2024

     Less than a month after LCPC was ACPC. Due to the LCPC being postponed twice, my team and I were late to apply for visas. ACPC was held in egypt, and do not get me started on how annoying it is to get Egyptian visas. From the moment LCPC ended, we were in a race against time, but thankfully, we managed to get our visas just one day before our flight.

     I was fortunate enough to meet some of the brightest minds and connect with people I met on Discord (shoutout to Errichto Server Official). A special mention to those I was most excited to meet at ACPC: ismailfateen, SirPh and HusseinFarhat <3.

friends_pic_one

Left to right: SirPh — Amadoo — HusseinFarhat — Me — Ahmed57


team_pic_one

Team pic, left to right: CodePrinceX — Me — yury

Contest Day + Strategy

     I wasn't particularly nervous before the contest; I was more tired than anything. It was hard to get enough sleep given that we didn't reach our rooms until 3a.m. on the first day.

     When the contest started, we didn't have the best of starts. Our progress was steady but relatively slow at first. Our contest strategy was to stress test every single problem before submitting regardless of how easy it is. We managed to sweep through 8 problems (7 easy and medium, only 1 hard) with no wrong answers at all. At one point we reached 3rd place, though we fell to 5th before the blind hour.

     During the blind hour, I was committed to solving problem C but quickly switched to F noticing it had more submissions. The idea was pretty simple, but I had a LOT of bugs implementing and I couldn't get it in time sadly.

     As the contest ended, I felt a mix of nervousness and disappointment. There were a LOT of submissions from teams ranked below us, and I couldn't help but feel a bit sad that I couldn't solve problem F in time.

     When the final results were announced, we finished in 9th place, dropping 4 ranks during the blind hour thanks to our contest strat. Despite the slip, we earned a bronze medal—and most importantly, we qualified for the ICPC World Finals!!

Final Notes

     I hope this blog inspired and motivated some of you, and made you believe that with discipline and hard work, you can achieve a successful competitive programming career.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments.
Thank you for reading :)

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6 weeks ago, # |
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<333333333

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6 weeks ago, # |
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GGWP guys, hoping to meet you irl soon.

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6 weeks ago, # |
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what's your routine?

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    6 weeks ago, # ^ |
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    I don't follow a specific routine for practicing.
    Solving problems is more of a hobby for me—whenever I have some free time, I load up a Codeforces problem and just think about it.

    You can think of it like playing video games; for me, practicing is a form of entertainment. My advice would be to try to enjoy CP as much as possible. Once you start having fun, it no longer feels like 'grinding'—it’s more like 'playing'.

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6 weeks ago, # |
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W

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Chad!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of such an amazing team :)

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Inspirational!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats Wxssim, you inspire us all :D

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats! Your grind shall be forever inspiring

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6 weeks ago, # |
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W

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6 weeks ago, # |
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It's okay you'll get to meet java boy some other day

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6 weeks ago, # |
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I am super grateful to be part of this incredible team and to have had the opportunity to meet such amazing people :)

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6 weeks ago, # |
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goat

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6 weeks ago, # |
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iam very happy for your achievement !! congo for icpc wf

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Most deserved qualification ever

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6 weeks ago, # |
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THE GOAT HAS SPOKEN!!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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anyone who wants to join Farhat Fan club and become a Farhat Fan club Peep hit me up

Also MABROUK Wassim

(Thats arabic for Congrats (written in English letters))

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Inspirational. Congrats!!!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Wxssim orz, Congratulations...

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats on your achievements! And yes, I would like to read a blog on your routine.

Wish you the best.

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Wxssim orz

ur consistency is insane

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6 weeks ago, # |
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congrats brother!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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orz

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats on WF, would like to know about your training routine. ORZ

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Wxssim orz!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Wxssim orz! Also I wish I could be in this group photo :(

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Wow, your effort and consistency is very impressive! Congrats on qualifying!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats Wassim, you really deserve it! Your story is very motivating, hope to see you in the world finals!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Hi Wasim! I am also a 1st-semester student and had a similar experience to yours in the university's coding competition where I was ranked 50% which sparked me into this CP field now unlike you I am at the start of my journey and have great hopes in the future as I am hard working toward my goal of being the top in my country as well! INSHALLAH

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6 weeks ago, # |
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How did u manage without reading the editorials pls guide me since there are many questions in which i am unable to think anything and the tutorial tells me completely new info which i was never familiar to

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats Wxssim <3 Well deserved. Looking forward to seeing you at the World Finals!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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If you have this kind of perseverance, you will succeed in everything you do in the future.

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Thank you all for your kind words and support <3
I would have loved to thank each and every single one of you but that will clog up the comment section, but I really appreciate you all!!

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Orz

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Glad that I witnessed this journey from below the Zero :)

idk what that but, orz

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6 weeks ago, # |
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congrats bro. your journey is really inspiring for everyone. we would love to hear about your daily routine and practice strategy in detail. :)

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Wxssim, I want to know how do you manage your time during practice. you've mentioned that your thinking process for a problem is up to 24 hrs. But how did you manage to solve 2900+ problems in 1 year + few months? no offense bro, i'm just confused. Should I think over a single problem whole day or it would be better to solve 3-5 problems by reading editorial in a day? :)

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6 weeks ago, # |
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This was really helpful man. I am just starting my journey lets see how far I can get

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6 weeks ago, # |
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3-24 hrs on ques, that's insane. I will also try to give more time in thinking the ques.

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Hi sir , I am starting cp at cf and I facing a lot of problems Like I don't get intuition after spending hours even and sometimes code I write even cheats . Can u give some suggestions?? While ur blog was super motivating for me .. Thanks in advance

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6 weeks ago, # |
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<3 orz

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Can you tell me which problem from the LCPC 2023 required FFT?

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6 weeks ago, # |
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that's motivating for me, ty man. I quitted CP but after reading this, i want to come back in the near future with new practice routine (back then my routine is sus lol)

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6 weeks ago, # |
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orzz!! congratulations! :))

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6 weeks ago, # |
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from one alpha to another, congrats brother.

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6 weeks ago, # |
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Absolute cinema, congratulations!

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5 weeks ago, # |
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I just read the blog, pure motivation, thx man. You have an amazing country btw.

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5 weeks ago, # |
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Suppose a person sits all day with a problem, then how long do you think he should stay with that problem?

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5 weeks ago, # |
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This is so strong

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5 weeks ago, # |
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Eagerly waiting to know your practice method

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5 weeks ago, # |
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Very Inspiring <3, thnx for sharing your journey Wish you the best in ICPC

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5 weeks ago, # |
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Congrats. Did you practice sorting by rating?

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5 weeks ago, # |
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wow

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5 weeks ago, # |
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GigaChad GOAT <3

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3 weeks ago, # |
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Outstanding achievement.

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3 weeks ago, # |
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I am ready to give WF in 2025

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3 weeks ago, # |
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amazing . this is influence many programmer to delicately coding

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3 weeks ago, # |
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Thanks Wxssim man! This is definitely a confidence booster!

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2 weeks ago, # |
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keep practicing i am coming for you

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11 hours ago, # |
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For newbies like me spending countless hours on watching You tube videos and thinking that solving problems in Cp, LeetCode or anything is nothing but hard and not a piece of cake but One thing which keeps me going on the journey is reading this type of achievements and success stories Why not i can be a part it not today but someday .. Any suggestion on Improving the ranks it would be really helpful to me

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