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.
Calling CP "*hard work*" is just an excuse people use to avoid thinking about talent. Most strong coders were able to progress so quickly and have high caps because of talent — they built it through consistency. If 800–1300 feels interesting, it just means you should quit cp. I'd rather trust the science than random delusions.
ahmadexe, prove them wrong
Dude thinks he is better than LGMs, who have never seriously said that CP is talent like thing, almost all of them say "Consistency" and never "talent", though GM+ things are not what I can say, but Till master, a proper effort and consistency will do the job.
What makes you think "indian resources" are seen as a joke? Are you serious or is this sarcasm
Don't worry about that guy. He's just a racist.
speedrunning negative upvotes be like:
¨CP is a game of...¨
A game??
bro tried ragebait so good . the only talent here is your ability to farm downvotes
not good idea.
shouldn't your rating be at least 2x of his, to be able to say that?
So, suggest some "Non-Indian resources", if you have it
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
Hi! Thank you for reviewing my profile. So during a contest, it feels like my thinking process throughout the contest is slower than normal practice.
If I did the same practice in morning, I would get it done within half the time probably. The contests (in my time zone) happen in the evening.
I would skip over words, and while I would make observations that could have actually led me to the solution, I tend to forget them or feed thought to them.
My schedule looks like this:
When there's no contest: CP is the first thing in the morning. 3-4 hours
When there's a contest: 6-8h work till afternoon, 1h of football, then the contest in the evening
So to sum it up, I just feel way slower in contests.
i guess if speed is the issue, then i can think of a few things
if you do a bit of timed practice (i like to do 1 problem with 40 minutes time, using this bot), then it can help focus on speed. also imo, i think there are diminishing returns for how long you spend practicing a problem, if you spent 40 minutes and don't have any ideas then i would just read editorial, if you are making progress then feel free to continue). 40 minutes is honestly not that much time, especially for problems at the edge of your skill level, so it kind of focuses on converting problems into ACs in contests with a bit of additional pressure
for sure the other activities you are doing that day can hurt your performance in contest, maybe think about skipping football that day so that you can focus on the contest? there's not much you can do about skipping work i guess. its up to you but a bit of additional rest can help make your thinking much clearer
fishorz
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.
I love CP. I enjoy solving problems but I am not getting results. Thanks for suggesting them! I will definitely focus on OI style problems as well. But getting a good rating in cf was a personal goal of mine which I really want to achieve one way or another
my friend MohammadDallash faces the same thing....
back at it huh
DO one thing for at least one month :
Try solving a problem of 1300(start from here again), but if you cannot solve it then don't take any help, just think of all the solutions you can think of, if you still cannot solve it on that day, then bookmark that problem(after thinking for that on the whole day, as amount is not your issue) and solve a new one on the next day(if you can solve the problem then choose the next problem).
Now what you have to do with the bookmarked problem is that you visit then after 2 to 3 days again, if you still cannot solve it then do it again after 7 days, if still not able to solve it then see a hint for that.
This may sound hardcore but it for sure trains your cognitive abilty, you yourself will see the effects.
Thank you! I will definitely do more of that now. I was previously following Shayan's advice to solve as many and just look at solutions right away.
i guess it depends on the person but i'm not really a big fan of this strategy. first of all, it's a bit demotivating if you are spending a long time on a problem without making any progress on it. it might be specific to me as well, but keeping a problem open for a long time is an easy way for me to think that i am being productive while actually just wasting a lot of time. if it works for you then that's great, but i see this advice thrown around a lot (partially because its also a lot more satisfying to get a problem after spending a long time on it rather than admitting defeat), but its not for everyone
i think codeforces problemset isn't best to grind , consider doing some math to some level t
Project Euler >>
I think that you should take the $$$AGCT$$$ on cognitivemetrics.com and use code $$$FREJARD$$$ at the end to avoid paying any money. The people who revived that test, they aren't the most honest people, but they do know their stuff, so it is an accurate measure of your $$$IQ$$$. Then you won't need to question your cognitive ability anymore.
Hey, how much should be for advancing in cp, like i did that and scored around 115, but mainly because i wasn't able to complete it, just filled randomly for around 20 — 30, so how high it should be
If you have true love with CP, I won't say quitting is a good idea. If you are having problems with the problems, maybe you could practice easier problems to get in touch with mistakes. Also, don't be so stressful about it, just think CP as a joyful hobby :D
I hope my advice would be helpful to you in some way. I wish you will have better results in the future :>
Long answer
I know I may not have the rating/results necessary to say anything, but here goes...
But I would suggest maintaining a separate journal for all the problems solved and apart from upsolving(non — negotiable) . Do re — solving/re visiting the hard problems from past(spaced repetition) and see if you can derive the core idea yourself.
On thinking, keep 50 minutes at least for anything above ur rating, higher rated problem then more time think through each and every damn thing, work patterns in paper. All in all do whatever you mean as "serious effort/serious analysis", if not then leave/abandon the approach try new approach for the same(I know its hard to get creative here, but I feel creativity is one of a huge separator).
And also , no AI btw, that thing kills progress, ask friends, in blogs, view solves of higher rated people, don't ever AI for solution, but use it to analyse your weakness and areas of improvement. Turn off tags when solving higher rated probs. Refer the competitive programmer's handbook.
I am pretty sure Codeforces awards that level of effort over time, and also don't neglect the mental health, sleep, eat well, take breaks when necessary, and reward yourself if you solve hard problems.
Hope you liked it. Higher rated people, suggest any improvement,
Thanks,
Edit: Virtual Contests are goldmine No advanced stuff early on Math topics like graphs, combinatorics, number theory, probability are needed
And more importantly : like cr7 said, hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, enjoy and trust the process, wishing you the best