0xEmadeddin's blog

Is specialist that hard?
By 0xEmadeddin, history, 9 months ago, In English

Hello Folks,

I have been struggling for more than 7 months to reach Specialist on Codeforces.

I can agree that I had some wrong training and learning routine, but what I'm sure about is that my skills have improved and I got better.

I was on time yesterday with Codeforces Round 923 (Div. 3), and I was hella ready to finally hunt down this Rank.

DoN'T LoOk aT mY RaTiNg ToT

Do I really have a problem? and how to know my real rating, and to improve?

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9 months ago, # |
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Do you struggle with solving 1400+ problems?

Spoiler
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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Yes, very probable after plag check.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Not Really, some are easy to solve for me, others are somehow difficult It really depends on, maybe the statement, my mental health idk tbh :"D

    but I'll do my best to try solving more of them. Thank you

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    :)

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9 months ago, # |
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Good luck. It is because of smurf accs and some cheaters that take undeserved ranks. You can check my last blog where a CM placed 53 yesterday..

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9 months ago, # |
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actually no, solving div2abc fast on single contest is sufficient to reach cyan from pupil.

but, maintaining one that's different story

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    True and I just became specialist so I am gonna go through that story XD.

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9 months ago, # |
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Congrats my friend!

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9 months ago, # |
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What I think , you have solved good amount of question but most of them are 800 rated. What truly matters in contest is how quickly you can solve questions and that speed comes when you solve lot of questions consistently around your current rating i.e from 1000 to 1400 for you.

Here's a advice and resources you can follow. I followed same since 15th of last month regularly and gave every contest since then and became specialist ( you can check my profile) .

_Here's the resource...

Credits:- It's a cp sheet created by Priyansh31dec , Thanks.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    I'll give it a look, I appreciate your reply.

    Thank you so much.

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9 months ago, # |
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I was stuck at Specialist for a long time, took a break for 1.5years, came back and reached Expert. Maybe I needed a break to learn and practice more. You could try that.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Where and what do you practice in that time ? I also took break from cf as I was stuck on pupil but practiced on leetcode and explored development and once again started practicing on cf and became specialist . I also want to reach expert can you give some advice and tips ?

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      I think you should ask this from some stable Expert. As for me, I practiced on Usaco, InterviewBit, and Cses. Studied algorithms from some courses. Most importantly, I am following the advice of Guslix who told me to solve 100+ problems of each rating starting from 800. I think you could solve 50+ of each rating from 800 onwards. It'll improve your speed, accuracy and you'll be more confident in solving problems of the next rating.

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9 months ago, # |
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I am specialist and hard as fuck, so probably

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9 months ago, # |
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  1. Try to do some virtual contest.
    • Div.3 (A, B, C, D + E)
    • Div.2 (A, B, C).
  2. Solve 1400–1600 problems.
  3. Be consistent
  4. regularly upsolve
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9 months ago, # |
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Do you know what else is hard?

*Hint its in my pants

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Something hard won’t matter if it’s tiny

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      You know what else is hard and tiny?

      *Hint it's in my mouth

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        9 months ago, # ^ |
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        LMAO WTF xDDDD

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          9 months ago, # ^ |
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          My dentist says that if I keep eating so much sugar and not brushing, it'll make them soft.

          Behold, ye who indulges in the saccharine embrace without paying homage to the sacred bristles, shall witness thine teeth transform from the hard and tiny guardians of your mouth to soft and scarce relics of your neglect.

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9 months ago, # |
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Don't delude yourself. If you aren't cyan it's because you don't perform at the level of current cyans during contests. Everyone else also faces cheaters.

There is no reason to assume codeforces rating is a bad estimator of your skill level at codeforces contests; especially in the long term. We could say it's a bit noisy so perhaps the median of your last 5 rating values can be used to get a more stable value. Following this idea, your true rating would currently be 1358.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    I'm not trying to delude myself, nor trying to assume Codeforces has cheaters, nor trying to prove that Codeforces is a bad estimate for my skills!

    I literally mentioned at the very end of my blog that If I do have a problem, and how to improve...

    Thanks for your reply anyway, I appreciate it.

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      Fair enough.

      My usual advice is to upsolve after every contest (at least one problem. Two is a bit better but harder. Three is pretty useless, as solving three more problems is a too far out of reach and not beneficial to your growth), then read editorial and solutions by strong contestants. As you do this step, make sure to take note of important ideas, try to recall if they show up in problems you already solved, try to change your thinking process to come up with the kind of ideas explained in the editorial and if a different approach than yours is explained, try to fully understand it and get accepted without looking at the solution code.

      When you take a contest, have a clear goal in mind. (When going from blue to purple my goal was "solve 4 div2 problems") once you can hit your goal consistently, you make it harder. The idea here is progressive overload: always aim for a bit more than you can handle. That part is like going to the gym. The part that I think is unique to CP is that you should also try to come up with as simple solutions as possible (I yhink you can achieve this by following my advice from the previous paragraph).

      I hope this helps

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9 months ago, # |
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yes

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