Endagorion's blog

Q&A Video?
By Endagorion, history, 6 years ago, translation, In English

A few people expressed interest in me answering some questions regarding competitive programming/problemsetting/related stuff. Since I have a bit of free time during these holidays, let's try this. I'll choose a few most interesting questions from comments under this post and try to answer them in a single video.

Ideally a question should not be to broad ("please give us some tips and tricks" is probably too broad) and possible to answer within a few minutes. I probably won't answer a question if it was asked a lot of times here on CF/quora/someplace else. Let's go!

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

How did you come up with CP?

Who was your coach(es)?

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6 years ago, # |
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Do you think you had some innate talent?

Did you also do some math olympiad?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    Do you think you had some innate talent?

    LooOOoOOOooOOOOoLoOOooOOooOOooOOLoOoOOOOoOOoL. ROFL. LMAO. It doesn't take a genius to guess his answer to these sort of questions. In fact, any type of question about talent is useless. So what if he says yes? And so what otherwise? Is that gonna make you feel better about yourself because you have an excuse to not be red due to absence of "innate talent" or is that gonna make you feel worse because you are not as "talented" as him?

    Either way, only God (if you are not atheist) knows why you have "lesser talent" than the OP and couldn't become red even after a "long time". So please stop asking such useless questions.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    The biggest talent is the ability to work hard consistently.

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6 years ago, # |
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What role does a coach play in a team of highly rated/experienced members?

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6 years ago, # |
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How many dicks behind the collar did you get? is it more than 80%?

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6 years ago, # |
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  1. While studying mathematics, did you give more attention to theory or practice?

  2. Did you go beyond standard textbooks (for example, on number theory or string algorithms) while studying?

  3. Do you consider new published papers on algorithms and data structures as an additional resource of preparation for contests?

  4. How much time do you spend for competitive programming a week as a coach in comparison to the past as a competitor?

  5. Did you spend more time on theoretical or implementational part during preparation for contests?

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6 years ago, # |
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What is your salary per month?

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6 years ago, # |
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Do you think taking part in Competitive Programming at University will increase your chances at landing a job in a big company ? What else do you think they look at ?

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6 years ago, # |
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Milk or cornflakes first?

Btw. I'm sure tehqin would love to have you on his Algorithms Live channel.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    I don't usually have cereal @ But when I do, I eat it dry

    Algorithms Live is cool, that might be fun!

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6 years ago, # |
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Only one question.
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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    I am most certainly sure it isn't just practice. Many IGM's and LGM's have practiced more than he did, and still practice and participate more than he does. Still he always has a 1 digit rank in every single contest. Of course there are exceptions but they are drastically low in number.

    I would like other high rated people or possibly tourist himself to address to this question too :P What do you think?

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      LOoOoOoOOoOOOoOoOoOoLoOoOOoOOoOOOooOoOOoL. ROFL. LMAO.

      Firstly, you got no evidence to make this claim:

      Many IGM's and LGM's have practiced more than he did

      Secondly, tourist has already answered your question with this quotation ages ago:

      I am no genius. I am simply good at it

      Try asking him what made him so good? You'll probably just get the same old answer everyone else is saying — practice. Maybe you could trying asking God why he gave tourist more than everyone else? Better, ask him why he made Trump the president when there were clearly better options.

      LMAO. XD.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      Many IGM's and LGM's have practiced more than he did, and still practice and participate more than he does

      Out of curiosity — could you please share some numbers about total amount of time spent practicing by each of the contestants currently in top10?

      I used to think that even contestants themselves don't have these things properly tracked, but apparently you somehow managed to measure it and put things together...

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6 years ago, # |
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What's you credit card number?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    Can you do anything with it without the expiration date and the security code?

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      A script that tries every security code and every expiration date on a bunch of websites.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
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          Well in that case why don't you try BINS and LIVE CC's. :D just kidding.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      You don't need security code to pay on Amazon, for example. Still need expiration month, card number and (possibly) cardholder's name, though.

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6 years ago, # |
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what is love?

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6 years ago, # |
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What is the most cool problem you've set? How did you come up with its idea?

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6 years ago, # |
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Did you keep taking breaks from competitive programming when you were practising during your prime? What other activities did you do apart from CP during your peak to avoid mental exhaustion(physical games or any other such stuff).

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6 years ago, # |
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What is so different in USSR countries that favours growth of strong competitive programmers? Coaching for CP begins at very early age? Is it manifested in some sort of curriculum of high school? Because not many countries have curriculum based which favours competitive programming until 16-18 years of age (but they support programming in general).

It would be lovely to hear about your beginning :D.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    You can read my Quora answer here. Basically, good extracirricular math/programming education, top-notch training camps for school students, an all-Russian olympiad diploma reserves you a spot in a university of your choice regardless of your exam scores.

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6 years ago, # |
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What is the story behind your username?

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6 years ago, # |
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When upsolving/solving problems for practice, how long after being stuck on a problem do you look at the answer?

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6 years ago, # |
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Do you have any regret, particularly in this Competitive Programming world? What is it?

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6 years ago, # |
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Why do Russians always win the WF?

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6 years ago, # |
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What do you think about the problems that go outside the usual format in some way? For example, is it OK to give a problem where googling is part of the expected approach?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    I liked this problem by majk in this sense. You need some little-known theorem to solve it but it is given in the statement.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      Do I interpret your answer correctly that if this was not given in the statement, the problem would be bad?

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        In my opinion it would be worse.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      I didn't like that at all. It's fine to link some definition, not the theorem you should use. And for sure not something that maybe has links to the theorem you should use, and maybe not: take a guess, maybe you will just waste time.

      It would be fine in a long contest (like 10-day Codechef), where time doesn't matter much.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        I believe that problemsetters don't write random things. So if I see a link to some wiki page about the problem I'm working on, and this link is in the statement, I'll definitely take a look.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
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          They sometimes put a link for people who don't know some topic/thing, e.g. link to XOR definition. Do you click that too? Maybe it has some info that would help you solve a problem.

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
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            Such links are most of the times in the definition part, often in Notes section of the statement. This was definitely not that case.

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6 years ago, # |
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If you could go back to tell your younger self only one thing regarding CP, what would you tell?

What are the reasons one might prefer coaches over books and/or the other way around?

Ideally, how much time should one really try their best to solve a new type of problem (with little to no background knowledge) before looking the editorial, hints, or resources (when practicing)?

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6 years ago, # |
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On google code jam 2018 you qualified to round 3. why did you not participate in round 3? you usually reach the finals...

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6 years ago, # |
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How many bitches did you have exactly?

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6 years ago, # |
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What, in your opinion, makes a good problem? What are your favorite problems you've authored or solved over the years? Do you have any advice for problem writers?

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6 years ago, # |
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How to educate kids on Problem Solving and Math from early?

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6 years ago, # |
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How to completely prepare a contest overnight? (I know you have large experience in that XD)

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6 years ago, # |
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Apart from giving training, what else can a coach do for beginner teams and also for experienced teams?

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6 years ago, # |
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-

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    A better career is subjective, don't you think ? What you think is better ( Ofcourse you mean money wise ) is not everybody's only aim in life.

    Do you think a software engineer working at some 20LPA company has a better career than a scientist if he earns less ?

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6 years ago, # |
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  1. According to this link you are a professor at MIPT. What does you classes look like? Can you share some resources or problem sets that you use to train students there?

  2. Why didn't you pursue an opportunity in software engineering industry?

  3. How would you suggest to someone who you are training to handle jumps in problem difficulty? Div2D to Div2F gets crazy tough(at least for me:) ). Can you share some tips for that?

  4. Do you participate in contests now to still improve or just for fun?

  5. If you were to prepare for some contest (say Code Jam) what would you do? Practice past year code jam and Div1E? Or read theory etc?

  6. What's the story behind you hair style?

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6 years ago, # |
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How to solve implementation and ad hoc problems in CP?

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6 years ago, # |
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Are you subscribed to PEwdiepie?

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6 years ago, # |
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Do you write things on paper when solving a problem? I find it impossible to solve without writing, yet you and Petr make screencasts with commentaries where you solve complex stuff without writing stuff.

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6 years ago, # |
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When is this Q&A Happening? Any dates yet.

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6 years ago, # |
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Was the Q&A video made?

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