Norp's blog

What should I do?
By Norp, history, 9 months ago, In English

Hello codeforces!

I recently began to notice that my rating began to drop significantly. I couldn't even solve 2 problems from yesterday's Division 2, although the number of people who solved B or C exceeded 18,000!

This is already the 4th contest where I have lost my rating. This won't do anymore. My goal is to reach a rating of 1200 before the summer.

Can anyone tell me what topics, and in general, what should I do in order to reach a pupil in such a time?

Thank you in advance and wish you all the BEST!

Plus, I want to continue blogging about my progress in CP:)

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9 months ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

List of topics needed to reach pupil:

  1. 8th grade math
  2. That's all.
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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    What about programming topics?

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      You should be good with the syntax of your language and you should know when to use things like sets/dictionaries to reduce time complexity. Also learn binary search.

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9 months ago, # |
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Practice. D2A/B often don't need more than some neat observations. Perhaps binary search will be useful, but std::set will usually suffice.

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9 months ago, # |
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cry

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9 months ago, # |
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Things to do:

  • attempt A-C of prev Div3,4 contests, If you are comfortable doing it upsolve D

  • Most of the ABC are greedy and adhoc and they sum up on 3-4 cases, so make sure to scribble alot while solving problem

  • you can solve and attempt atcoder's beginner contest too, its better for learning new ideas and algorithms.

  • good things take time, enjoy the journey

Things not to do:

  • Thinking about your rating as such, skills means rating, vice versa isn't true,
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9 months ago, # |
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Codeforces does not improve your programming skills if you're just starting out. I would suggest to get a good grip over language (C++ say) and understand fundamental algorithms (specifically greedy, number theory, dynamic programming, divide and conquer). Also, dont forget to 'upsolve' problems of a contest which you feel you can solve but couldn't during the contest.

PS: I was thinking of creating a blog for beginner CPers. Let me know if I should.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Yes Sorlag! You should! would be very helpful

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    You really shouldn't — there are already $$$10^{37}$$$ blogs out there on this topic, and beginners would benefit more from actually solving problems rather than another "how to practice" blog.

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9 months ago, # |
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If you train more, you'll grow up. I wish you good luck.

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9 months ago, # |
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As a beginner, watching contest reviews on YouTube really helped me to understand the fundamentals.

i feel like I'm improving my speed and my understanding a lot when someone explains a problem i couldn't solve during the contest.

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