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.
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:
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.
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....
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 think codeforces problemset isn't best to grind , consider doing some math to some level t
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