lancetheloser's blog

How many hours should I train daily if I want to become expert in 3 months?
By lancetheloser, history, 6 years ago, In English

I want to become an expert in 3 months. I have at least 8-10 hours a day. Because I am on vacation for 2 months. I have been practising 8 hours a day for the past week. And I have improved significantly. But I am aiming for expert. So how many hours should I practise to become an expert in 3 months?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

12 hours

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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

It's definitely possible, I did it recently. Check out my rating chart. I was meandering for a bit in green, and then I started training more seriously starting in mid/late November last year and now I'm Expert.

What I did was do a lot of div2 and div3 virtual contests and then I upsolved every problem afterwards. And honestly 8-10 hours a day might be too much, upsolving is painful and your brain will have to "rest" after straining on a particularly hard problem. To improve you have to identify your core weakness and drill it, and that process is challenging.

Generic advice I know, but at least now you know it's possible :)

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    In the beginning how many problems are you able to solve? For me I can solve div2 A,B,C problems but for problem D either I'm not able to solve it or the time is short .What should I do ? And for problem like D,E should I give them try to sovle by myself ?Bcz it takes me too much time to solve them or should I directly go to the tutorials ? And did you used to read Geeksforgeeks too ? or only solved codeforces problems ?

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6 years ago, # |
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Not more than 2 hours, solving div2 A, B, C is enough for being an expert, so they are not really challenging, just try to type faster...

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

    I have no idea why this is (edit: was) downvoted. If you are a fast typer/implementer, you can get to Expert just by solving Div2 A and B. Solve both in under 20 minutes consistently and you should become blue.

    Of course, for getting any higher than that, you'll need to practice algorithms to get the Div2 C and up, but if you're just aiming for expert...

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
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      I think it is needed solving C-div2 too

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

        Yes, Div2 C seems to be the biggest barrier in becoming expert.

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
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        Obviously you need to solve div2C unless it is in the difficulty level of 2000.As a lot of specialists and even pupils solve 4 problems, it's possible to solve 4 problems in div2 round if you have a better luck.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
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          In the case C is too hard I think it is the right time trying to solve D instead :)

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Solving A and B is not usually enough. And solving Div2 C's consistently takes time and practice.

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        It seems the two times I went from specialist->expert were in contests where I just solved A and B (see here and here). It seems like I was able to get a lot of hacks in one of the contests, but it was still the case that I only solved A and B.

        One thing I will note is that I posted that comment 17 months ago and CodeForces was a little different then. Back then, it was much more common for Div2 contests to have 5 questions, whereas now they seem to have 6 or even sometimes 7. Because of this, B's are easier than they used to be (I think).

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -9 Vote: I do not like it

228337

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6 years ago, # |
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you will get expert when you stop disrespect LTDT

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -42 Vote: I do not like it

Looking For Virtual Contest Participant

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5 years ago, # |
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It all depends. Becoming expert needs more fundamental knowledge than training with problems.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
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    Please, explain yourself.

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
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      Explain for...what? For being extremely weak?

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        5 years ago, # ^ |
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        Haha no, I meant please explain what do you mean with more fundamental knowledge than training with problems.

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          5 years ago, # ^ |
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          Ah. I meant that gaining knowledge is the important thing instead of rating. Problems being solved are just for strengthening skills of implementation of knowledge. It's meaningless just solving low-rated problems without actually learning anything...

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
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    This is from 15 months ago...

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      5 years ago, # ^ |
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      Hahahaha I know. I didn't realise at first sight.

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

Try dragons instead

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

r/LingLing40Hrs

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5 years ago, # |
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just 5 hours like me and kuzan_aokiji

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

To become Expert you just need good implementation skills and very basic algorithm/data structures. Being able to solve A-C quickly should get you blue. Simple advice would be — try to solve as hard problems as possible (while still not too hard for you at given moment).Try to get out of your comfort zone.

These resources might help you :

A2Oj Ladders

Competitive Programmer's Handbook by Antti Laaksonen

Competitive Programming 3 by Steven Halim

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4 years ago, # |
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I think he is expert now in his main account.

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