This is just to ask the secret to rise quickly in competitive programming world. You will say it's just practice but I want to ask just one thing w.r.t some Indian coders, how are some with practice of lesser amount of questions more successful as compared to some with around double or triple practice, now some of you will say they practiced in the right or better direction then please throw some light to that direction, there are many with just lack of guidance(correct guidance actually) who can do well in CP. There are many inspirations for those people who get to know about coding in 1st year of their colleges.yashChandnani sir in just 3rd year and amnesiac_dusk sir in just 2nd year and many many others like them who have of-course practiced a lot with great level of concentration but many have done more practice and are involved from much time, please tell us that direction too.
P.S. don't judge me for the absence of practice from this account, this is my friend's account
Why wouldn't you write from your own account?
Real pro is abhikalpu_123. My progress is all his blessings.
How he practices or how you practice, what is the strategy while practicing and the goal behind picking specific question, please throw some light on your strategy, it would be of great help to many like me
abhikalpu_123 ki codeforces profile khol ke naariyal todo roz subah. Safalta aur rating soon aapke jeevan mein aayega.
I guess no one knows exactly knows. I feel its about your background. Specifically for India, its mathematical abilities developed during JEE preparation. Hence, the reason IITians improve a lot faster than others.
Oh, you're one to talk. Huh, kids
abhikalpu_123 is The Next Big Thing in Indian competitive programming!
Kab? abhikalpu_123
Actually you are asking a very valid question. Some advice upon that topic would really be helpful.
Experienced coders... Please help...!!!
Read your own post again because you answered it yourself. Ask any legendary Indian coder, be it Rahul Dugar, Yash Chandnani or Manas Gupta, they have only one secret: practice.
I think the author of the post knows this secret : Practice...
He is trying to ask that what to practice ; or maybe what questions to practice ; or how to select questions while practicing ; or how many questions to practice each day or maybe how many hours to practice each day...
This is the help which is required... any views on this is appreciated...!!!
Thanks for clearing my point, this is exactly what I want to know
I think the truly shocking secret is: there's nothing more to it.
There are some common sense ideas that should be taken into consideration:
you need to solve problems that are neither too easy nor too hard;
you need to spend more than 15 minutes on a problem.
But other than that there is no real "theory" on how you should practice. If you ask successful competitive programmers how exactly they practiced there is no consensus. That's because these things don't matter. What matters is getting your hands dirty.
There is, however, one observation. I've noticed that a lot of aspiring competitive programmers are looking for some sort of "checklist" or "recipe" that would "make them successful". It's as if they are looking for some checkbox that they can tick to tell themselves that they have practiced. This very easily leads to a situation where people feel good about having practiced while actually the only thing they've done is some simple exercise that didn't improve them much at all. Then later they feel frustrated because they haven't improved.
I'm the exact opposite. I solve competitive programming problems almost solely because they are interesting. This isn't ideal either if you are someone whose motivation and interests can rapidly and unpredictably change. But still, I like this panel from xkcd which pretty well sums it up:
What if you're doing it and still being a pupil??
You're right: I should have clarified what I meant.
First, I'm not an ideal example, and there are way better people in competitive programming such as the ones you listed. One big reason for my success (whatever little there might be) is that I happen to have great company, and even though I'm average in those circles, I think I wouldn't have been half of what I am now had it not been for the people around me. So join a group/community of passionate learners, consisting of beginners and experts alike (either at your uni or online — such as the Discord CP Community).
Second, don't be too hard on yourself at any stage. If you think rating represents innate ability or even amount of practice, it doesn't. Even though they are significant factors, your rating also represents how coolly you go through your contests. Also, it's just a number. A friend of mine is rated 1600 on one account and 1900 on another, and it's the same guy in the same time-frame (more or less).
Third, the practice routine. I find that participating in contests is the most important part of this, but that's only when you find yourself pushing beyond your current scope in each contest. Allocate some time to upsolving harder questions and reading editorials (even when you solve them).
And last, which I can't stress enough: don't rush yourself into achieving rating goals in a particular amount of time. In other words, don't expect quick results. Make smaller and smarter goals (for example, "I will learn the convex hull trick and solve a few old contest problems tonight"), and you will see these slowly materialising into greatness.
So join a group/community of passionate learners, consisting of beginners and experts alike (either at your uni or online — such as the Discord CP Community
LoOOoOOooOooLoOOOoooOOOoOOLoOoOooOoooooOOL. ROFL. LMAO. Please don't recommend anyone the Discord CP Community. That community ain't doin' no good for anyone (unless you are looking for a talk-cock companion).
I'm not really an active member of the Discord server — it was one of the many examples I could pick off of my head. I can't speak much about them, but it does seem that they have a very active user-base that is not as toxic as the CF comments section. I don't see why you wouldn't consider it for somebody who's new to competitive programming but doesn't have anyone in their peer group with the same interests. And any community is just as good as the people it consists of, so it doesn't make sense to rigidly label one as useless for the rest of eternity.
It's good for shitposting, but other than that no.
I started programming in college only from third year. My aim was to at least become candidate master on CF before the final year. But instead of practicing hard I wasted my time enjoying with friends in college.(which I don't regret at all). So I still sit for the contests to become purple at least (in one year or two).
Although I don't get much time now because of day job but I have some insights which can help you to become better. First of all don't code to get a job if that's what you do then better study geeksforgeeks etc. and you will get placed in a great company(which many of the indian college students do). Competetive programming is a sport just like any other like basketball(which I used to play a lot during college).
Now coming to the practice part. Think hard on a problem for at least an hour , try to generate new ideas , unconventional ideas and if u r unable to think more then just follow the editorial and code up the solution yourself, this way you will learn to implement your line of thought quite fast. Now after you have implemented the problem, view best solutions or the ones you like and observe their thinking, this will teach you to think like the pros.
Always do questions out of your comfort zone, many people practice but they practice problems that are within their comfort zone. These days codeforces has also introduced rating for problems which is a great way of knowing your level so practice problems of 100 greater than your higher level until you are comfortable with them.
When you are having fun , time flies and sooner than you realise you will be better.
Some other lines that you can follow to become better are — codechef certification, they have listed out all the resources to learn new topics and practice on them. I strongly recommend doing that (I also have to start with that), Commonlounge also has a path to become a better programmer.
Try to derive the solutions by yourself, think in terms of mathematical equations etc. and repeat... when you brush daily you are healthy , in a similar way do a new question each day and you are satisfied...when you are satisfies, your brain cells are happy and forever remember the concept you learnt with that satisfied state of mind.
So keep practicing but in a smarter way and I hope you, sorry I know you will become better with time...rating , ladder etc doesn't matter only your interest does, if you are passionate enough you will become better with time.
NARIYAL PHODNE KI ZAROORAT NAHI HAI BHAI....EK path PAKAD aND end tk follow kr...
path ka end kahan par hai, mujhe nahin dikh raha
When u r satisfied with yourself , your path ends... :)
Here's the secret backdoor to becoming "red in one year".
Shh. Don't let the red coders know about it. They will kill me for creating more competition in the ratings.
I'm pretty sure you meant this.