Night_Lord's blog

How can I do well in codeforces?
By Night_Lord, history, 4 years ago, In English

Hello, I have been coding last three years. I have solved quite a number of problems in various sites like uva, lightoj.I also completed static a2oj(<1300) rating problems. But still in the codeforces contest there are so many problems I faced lately. Like, I solved A no question after 30-40 min. Someday I can't get the efficient algorithm to solve B no question. In some contest, I get wa for some very silly mistakes like not using long long integer or like not checking critical test cases etc. Here so many of the great coders just take 1 or 2 years to become blue or even further .But I don't know what I am missing in my approaches?

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4 years ago, # |
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I am interested in a similar question.

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4 years ago, # |
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The answer lies in practice only.since most of the AB don't require you to know much algorithms and B sometime require some knowledge of stl so if you use c++ you should give it a try and you can solve AB of previous contest until you feel comfortable in solving them.this worked for me.hope it will work for you too.

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4 years ago, # |
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Usually people who progress quickly have prior competition experience, especially in mathematics. If you want to see greater improvement faster, I would recommend challenging yourself with problems < 1500. My philosophy is that if you solved the problem in less than 20 minutes (before implementation) you haven't really learned anything.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    what time frame should be set to problems <1500 in your opinion (time for both thinking and implementation)?

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      thinking is more important, implementation is just muscle memory. first time u implement a BFS from scratch ur gonna take like an hour or two probably but then as u get better it'll probably take a few minutes at most (or maybe u have a pre built bs fxn)

      ** well implementation isn't ALL muscle memory there's some pretty hard implementations but most of the time it's just rehashing what you used before, and hey the more u solve cancer implementation problems the better u get at those, right? thinkings the main component

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4 years ago, # |
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I dont know if Iam the right person to advise you as i started doing competitive seriously about 20 days back , but here's what worked for me Start giving virtual contests ... Iam also a beginner and recently made the mistake of long long , despite having wrong answers in the past.

If you are not comfortable with virtual contests ,than rather going to the problemset , pickup a contest (div 3 , div 2 , div 4) and start solving its problems A , B , C ......

This helped me , although i am not sure if i am the right individual to advise you as u have much more experience than me

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4 years ago, # |
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In last 5 weeks you solved 10 problems on CF, this is 2 per week. As a gray coder you need to get used to implementation problems, you need to simply practice more.

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4 years ago, # |
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Most people who process well have good skill at math. If you approache CP with coding first, you can write code quickly. But if you prioritize math, you can think quickly and solve the problem easily.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Exactly, a good math background is conducive to better ratings at CP platforms.

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4 years ago, # |
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Things like not using long long happen to everybody,so don't worry :)

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4 years ago, # |
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My little progress came when I start doing contest regularly.And If the contest was good that's good , if bad then it works as motivation to solve more problems and do good in later contest.So participating in regular contest is a very important part.

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4 years ago, # |
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Jesus christ this question is asked 2 times a day.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Because not everyone is as good as you!! ;)

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      It takes everyone a long time studying and practicing to be good. Don't just look at their current rating.

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