tbcp's blog

hard situation
By tbcp, history, 13 months ago, In English

hello everyone, I would be glad if you would share your opinion about my situation, I just can't decide whether I should continue to engage in competitive programming or stop doing Olympic programming. a year and a half has passed since I started doing competitive programming. last year I passed the school stage of the Republican Olympiad and could not go further to the third stage. after that, I only solved Div2A, but then I started solving other tasks from other platforms and Div2 B. I also tried different ways to study competitive programming, but since then there has been no noticeable progress (I still continue to study like this) one year has passed? and today the school stage of the republican Olympiad has passed. most likely I didn't pass this year, let alone the next stage. should I continue to do sports programming or stop doing it. I also study in the 10th grade, I have 2 two years before graduation and I also need to do a bunch of things to get into university, I myself want to continue doing Olympiad programming, but wouldn't it be a waste of time if I continue at the same pace and achieve nothing worthwhile, maybe I should try other types of programming such as development and so on. I will be very glad to receive suggestions from you, thanks!

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13 months ago, # |
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just solve problems

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13 months ago, # |
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I looked at you profile, and I think I know the reason why you are stuck in you rating range.

Let me ask a question first. Is it possible to grow muscles if you lift a 500ml water bottle every day? I am not big on sports, but the answer is most likely no.

The same thing is happening to you: the tasks that you are solving are not hard enough. You are not facing a proper challenge, so you can probably autopilot most of the tasks that you are solving regularly.

I looked at your profile and most of the problems that you have solved are in range of 900-1100. You max rating and current rating are +- in this span.

I think you should try focusing on more difficult problems, but don't go to high with the difficulty, otherwise you will be just constantly looking at the editorials.

Try to find such a difficulty that you spend at least 20-30 minutes on each problem, and sometimes have to lookup the editorial. But if you look at the editorial more that 50% of the time, try lowering the difficulty, I would suggest something like 1300-1400, but I may be wrong.

I think it is a bad idea to do something for the sake of the achievements. Winning a tournament will make you feel good for a day or two, but it will also require years of work. So be smart and chose something that is fun to do, and maybe after some time you can get achievements in that field.

Olympiad programming is very fun imo, if you also feel like it, keep going. If not — try to find something fun for yourself :)

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    13 months ago, # ^ |
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    ok thanks, I will try to solve problems in range 1200-1300

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13 months ago, # |
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don't solve problems. cp is useless.

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13 months ago, # |
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Choose something in life that makes you happy ,after some time you will surely find success. Programming olympiad is very interesting, if you like it you can continue.

Now talking about practice, I saw your profile, where I saw that you only solve low-rating problems. To do well in competitive programming you need to solve problems between the +200-300 range from your rating.

Now if you have a question in your mind that how do you practice? Then you can see these blog https://mirror.codeforces.com/blog/entry/66909 and https://mirror.codeforces.com/blog/entry/98806.

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13 months ago, # |
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Do you know the term parallel processing? That's the solution to your problem. And giving up is never the solution.

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