Hi Codeforces family,
I’ve been doing competitive programming seriously since April 2024 and have solved over 280 problems so far. I practice daily, participate in contests, and upsolve after every round. Still, I struggle to solve the second question in Div. 2 contests. Even after spending a lot of time thinking, the correct approach often doesn’t click. This has started affecting my confidence, and I often wonder — is this something everyone goes through, or am I missing a key piece?
I’m genuinely passionate about getting better and would really appreciate:
Advice or mindset shifts that helped you push past this stage Topic suggestions I should focus on to reach newbie->Pupil → Specialist A realistic roadmap or step-by-step path toward improvement Suggestions on how many hours per day I should ideally invest I’m fully committed and willing to put in the work — just looking for a little direction from those who’ve been here before. Any guidance would mean a lot!
Thanks in advance!
I see that you have a lot of problems solved on 800, 900 and 1000 but very few beyond that. My advice is to start solving more 1200-1300, that's where most of problem B are usually. I feel the same way with some problems of 1800-1900, that it's something pretty easy once I read a little from editorial but I wonder how could I have gotten that "click". I am keep practicing problems a little bit out of my comfort zone in hope I will improve, good luck!
thanks for your advice i am currently trying to solve 1200 but after seeing problems of these rating i don't find a way to solve it and in the end after giving my 45min to 1hrs i take help of yt videos is these good practice
After 45 minutes take a short peek at editorial, anything that sents you on a path you didn't explore should make you try to solve it again yourself. Also, try to not copy solutions, understand ideas and implement them yourself.
My honest advice is to try solving more math problems ,they will help you a lot with problem-solving skills. Also, try to explore new topics like binary search and dynamic programming they will change your way of thinking a lot. In addition, challenge yourself with Div2 B and C problems , they’re amazing for growth!
thanks i will try to implement these
Div. 2 B problems are usually adhoc and unpredictable. There have been cases where I solved div 2 B solely using the fact that they were a div 2 B. My thought process was like "Common, this is a div 2 B, it can't be that hard. Maybe I misread it? It got to be just some simple observation" and then I proceed to guessforce and get AC (most of the times this will not happen and I will know the answer, but I remember a contest once where I solved up to E but had to guess force B, while not guessing any other problem).
My advice: it may seem kinda crazy, but try to do div 2 C consistently. Div 2 Cs are less unpredictable (sure there are some that are implementation heavy and are just harder than usual), but it is much easier to progress doing problems that actually require usage of some algorithms or data structure ideas, rather than pure random adhoc every single time.
Also solving a lot of C problems gives you some idea of the upper bound of what can be required to solve a B problem. That is, if you know div. 2 C usually requires some set of skills and some difficulty of implementation, then you know div. 2 B shouldn't be harder than that, and you can prune your ideas instead of thinking about really hard solutions to a simple problem. I can guarantee you that no div 2 B in a near future will have intended solution using centroid decomposition, so if you read a div 2 B and start to think of a solution using such a hard technique just stop and think again. This boils down to:
Knowing what is expected from each problem greatly improves your performance.
Thanks a lot! That really puts things into perspective — super helpful insight.
Take a break! If you practice every day, you can easily get a burnout :)