On the 1st December, 2022, I decided that by the end of 2022, I want to reach expert. I had commented this goal on to many blogs of the type, "what is your goal for the end of 2022", cementing my resolution in the internet, for all to see.

having a great two first contests in december, i shot up all the way from 1370, to 1589. However, in my penultimate contest of 2022, I had a terrible one. I dropped 34 points and was now 1555. All the pressure mounted on the last contest of 2022. And i had to do well

When the contest started, I got off to a terrible start. I used a set, instead of a multiset to store the elements of the array. And this was a fatal mistake. It took me a whole 30 minutes of debugging and 1 incorrect submission to fix it, after which i was well behind. I was the 7 thousandth person to solve the first question.

However, after this, my brain went into overdrive mode. I solved the second question and third question both in under 30 minutes. And i had a whole hour to solve the 4th question as well.

Although I came up with the correct idea, and even though I had written the entire code, unfortunately I made some mistakes which i didn't have time to debug.

However, despite my terrible start to the performance, as you can already see, I GAINED 64 POINTS AND AM NOW AN EXPERT. WOOHOO. I AM UNBELIEVABLY HAPPY.

This imo, shows the importance of setting high goals for urself. It is important to never lose hope in yourself, no matter what happens. This is also why I aim to become a legendary grandmaster by the end of 2023!

So look out for my blog post then, and i guess we'll see how far we can go!

Anyways, Toodaloo!