I have seen manytimes, that the winner of a Div 2 contest has solved both the A and B problems in less than 6 minutes. How is that done? You have to read, think and implement a question. Unless it's answer is a single line, it takes some time to implement a solution. I tried to solve a series of Div 2 B questions to increase my speed, and if the solution is obvious it takes me approximately 6-7 minutes, and otherwise 11-12 minutes.

I know that these people have a lot of practise, but is there any other tip they can share so that I (and other people like me) can improve our speed in contests?

My solving procedure: 1. Read 2. Think, come to a solution (ummm, obviously)

I do not use a template. I include #include<bits/stdc++.h> library. Then I do a using namespace std;. Then since writing for loop many times takes time, I define a macro like #define f(i,s,n) for(int i=s;i<n;i++). And then I start implementing. Since these questions are much easier, we mostly don't need another method.

Do templates save time here? Is there any other improvement I can make?

Any suggestions are welcome :)