TopCoder has been a famous competitive programming platform and I've heard of TopCoder for years. I've never participated in TopCoder rounds though. Like many of my friends, I started to really participate in online rounds since 2018, and Topcoder's fame already seemed to fade.
Last year, I did attempt to participate in a SRM, but I met various difficulties. Possibly I'm not clever enough but participating in SRM is indeed much complicated than participating a Codeforces Round.
- The java applet was confusing.
- I didn't know where to find the time of the next SRM. Although I saw posts of SRM announcements on Codeforces, it is usually the day after the round.
A few days ago, I finally find the current Topcoder Competitive Programming Page with the future contest time, solution, problem archive etc. The Link. (Last year, all I found was the arena. That was indeed confusing to me, I never imagined that there is a separate page.) It is finally possible for me to start participating in TopCoder, but I found that on TopCoder, SRM participants in 2019 are typically ~300, while a few years ago there were ~2000 people in a single round.
I'm a bit worried that TopCoder is dying and start participating on a new platform is probably not a good idea for me.
What are your suggestions? Shall I start participating SRMs, and why?