Since starting competitive programming on Nov 2020 (before that I just did the standard DS/A CS class in uni), I finally hit red after Codeforces Round 866 (Div. 1)! It has been a long 2.5 years. I actually hit orange pretty fast, but then orange to red seemed impossible.

After doing CF for a while, I realized the trick to gaining rating is to solve "easy" problems fast. My most difficult solve in rated contests is only 2600 (and it only happened once), the rest are mostly <= 2300. However, I realized as long as you can solve <= 2300 fast and consistent enough, it's enough to hit/touch red. Also, questions at that rating don't require any fancy stuff/algorithm, and have at most 1-2 observations required. Thus, if the solution seemed to use fancy algos, its probably not intended.

Actually, my main goal is to attend ICPC WF (I have one final chance before graduating), which is quite difficult because of the many IGMs in my school...