icyo's blog

How to become a GM
By icyo, history, 9 months ago, In English

Anyone has some advice for practice? Sometimes I can solve difficulty up to 2400 but sometimes can't.

upd: Can anyone suggest some difficult and important algorithm that a GM needs to learn?

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9 months ago, # |
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same

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9 months ago, # |
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Look bro it's not that hard

  • Firstly, believe yourself that you can do it, If you don't believe yourself that you can do it, how will you do it.

  • Practice has no alternative, Practice problems with rating 200 more than your current ratiing

  • Always upsolve after contests, this is very important tip okay?

  • Be consistent and participate in each and every contest to maximise learning

  • Always review codes of top coders like [user;tourist] sir, It will help you a lot

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    I agree with most of your advice. But I have some questions: - I think there are some algorithms that is more important and need to spend more time practicing. To become a GM, what difficult algorithms I should practice more? - Maybe I can't participate in every contest. Usually, the contest is during very late at night. Most of the times I vp. But when vp, the feeling is quite different from participating.

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      You're just coping dude cause you are not GM. Sounds like a skill issue to me

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        9 months ago, # ^ |
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        Are you teaching a Shark how to swim !... T_T

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      Tree DFS/BFS, some DP, a little bit of number theory or combinatorics, but mostly just problem solving skill.

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9 months ago, # |
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First give me some advice for practice. How can I become a Master?

If you know the answers to my question, then surely you will find the answer to your own question.

Last of all , Congratulations for become a Master!!

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Thank u very much! Becoming a Master you need to solve Div2E. But I think div2E don't need many algorithms, dp and DS is enough. M to GM need to participate div1 or div1+div2, and need more algorithms in math, combinatorics, graphs, constructive.

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9 months ago, # |
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Auto comment: topic has been updated by icyo (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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9 months ago, # |
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step one: be born Chinese

step two: study for three months

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9 months ago, # |
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I can't possibly comment on ways to become a GM but about about algorithms — I personally find Library Checker to be an excellent collection of standard(and non-standard) data structures/algorithms and their variations. It's maintained by an LGM, which definitely boosts its credibility.

Also, while dated, this blog by E869120 might help as well.

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9 months ago, # |
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It'll be almost impossible to get to GM if you sometimes can solve problems only up to "difficulty" 2400. You simply have to get lucky in some round and find a problem that's just right for you such that you solve it and others don't, then you'll get IGM performance and go to GM. From there what awaits you is most likely just dropping right back to master though.

Forget about problem rating, just solve problems. You calling problem rating "difficulty" blinds you from the actual difficulty of the problem.

As for algorithms, just learn whatever you need to when upsolving. There aren't that many algorithms to learn that are common in CP so you should learn them quite quickly if you upsolve consistently.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Thanks. I agree with you. Problem rating doesn't means actual difficuly. Learning from problems I can't solve is really a good way to practice.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Can you tell the ballpark time that we are looking at for something like GM from beginner?

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9 months ago, # |
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I used to wonder how to get to GM, until I solved enough problems.

I guess some part of my brain naturally improved through time so that I can consistently have a GM performance without intentionally learning anything new and I still have awful implementing skills.(You will learn new algorithms when you tried to solve problems)

I am not sure whether this would be the case for higher levels, but I believe to reach GM you just need to solve enough problems(for me, I only brainstorm the problems without even implementing)

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Yeah. Implementing skills is also important. You can simplify implementation with more time for brainstorming.

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9 months ago, # |
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I think you should practice binary search, try to solve problem ABC fast you will be fine.

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Alas! A bird instructing a Shark on the art of underwater navigation?

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Why don't you practise binary search first, skill issued noobie ? Your alt jinsu couldn't solve the last div3 binary search E. Much worse, 4 WA on B and went crying on round announcement.

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      9 months ago, # ^ |
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      Bro that's enough, plz stop now. His biggest mistake was adding this picture to the editorial's comment. Do you want to kill him for asking the questions?

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9 months ago, # |
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I think the binary search is one of the most important algorithms.

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9 months ago, # |
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When considering difficulty of a problem, time is a very important resource. Being able to solve a 2400 problem in 3 hours and 30 minutes is drastically different. Sometimes you'll have to solve harder problems you know how to solve. Not a great performance, but a good example.

So consider using something like ladders (basically solve problems in increasing difficulty until you understand the editorial). Solving any Div1 round like this works well. Give yourself plenty of time (around 1-1.5 hours) before reading the editorial for a problem. After you've failed to solve the problem by yourself, try to implement it off of editorial.

This helped me greatly in achieving GM.

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9 months ago, # |
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Stop learning useless algorithms, go and solve some problems, learn how to use binary search.

From Um_nik's famous blog

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9 months ago, # |
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Always ask the question: "-is-this-fft-?"

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    9 months ago, # ^ |
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    Don't question whether it's fft or not, simply eat nutella, you get even better benefits.

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