Hi everyone, I started CP about 2 years ago, and while I enjoy CP, I just can't get the results. During summer 2025, I started grinding from 1200's to 1300 and then 1400s. I used TLE's CP31 sheet, did the typical cses problems and did a lot of the the recent problems. After that, I started grinding all recent Div 2. from A to C. However, during this phase, I could not take many contests because I had a job during that time.
Then life got pretty busy and while I tried, there were phases where I would have a whole week without practicing. Now I left that job so I could take more contests. Since the last 2 months, I was suggested to start solving in the 1600 rating (as they told me I had enough problems solved in 1200-1400 range). I have tried to take every contest in the past 2 months and every time I get poor results. I would skip over words, sometimes won't even get simple observations right, it's these stupid mistakes every single time.
I am starting to question my cognitive ability and maybe competitive programming is too far fetched for me. If you guys could go through my profile and figure out where do I fall short, that would be great? :)
CP is a game of talent, if you aren't doing decent and don't enjoy the problem solving, I suggest quitting.
Please also refrain from using indian resources such as CP31, it is seen as a joke.
While I cannot give a full talent assessment here is a quick assessment
You have far far far far far far below average talent, beyond the realm of retardation. Quitting is your best choice since the only problems you can solve, 800-1300, are never interesting and all boring. You are completely unable to enjoy problems in that range, so there is no alternative, if you still say you like CP you are just lying to yourself.
Wow.
Calling CP "**pure talent**" is just an excuse people use to avoid hard work. Most strong coders weren't born solving 2000-rated problems — they built it through consistency.
If 800–1300 feels boring, it just means you haven't learned to see the patterns yet.
I'd rather trust steady progress than random negativity.
hi, what would you say is the biggest barrier from you getting C on the typical contest? i see that you upsolve it after the contest, how difficult is that and what do you think are those barriers preventing you from seeing the solution
Its a matter of if you like CP for not.
If you don't enjoy this, then you should find your true interest.
Also, you can try out some other types of "interesting tasks" (if you enjoy CP). that includes but not limited to: interactive problems, communication problems, partial scoring problems, and subtask based problems that appear in OIs.
my friend MohammadDallash faces the same thing....