basmaashour's blog

How should one return to competitive programming and stick to it?
By basmaashour, history, 6 years ago, In English

Hey, so I have been doing competitive programming since 2015, but I'm not committed to it, yeah, I enjoy my time doing it, but from time to time I feel that I'm not good enough so I quit for a couple of months, then I just made a new account and tell myself "Ok now I'm gonna start it all over again and with this ultimate plan it's finally gonna work", and it seems my plans never work xD

Anyhow, in 2019 I finally stopped, as I have started my new job as a software engineer and since then I was really busy in my work and I have no time to solve problems, but I was always thinking about competitive programming, even though software engineering is hell fun but I never felt that happiness and spark competitive programming gives me:(

I really want to return to competitive programming, but I'm afraid I'm gonna quit again if my plan failed for the thousand time, also I feel I'm kinda old now so it just too late, yes I tried a couple of times to return but it was just a matter of time, then I quit again due to the huge load of work "startup sucks" also I'm doing it alone so I have no one to motivate me.

So why I am writing this here? I really need some advice from people with the same problem as mine and they were able to solve it. And I decided it's time to ask for help and I couldn't find a better place than here.

Thanks.

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6 years ago, hide # |
 
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I think if you want to stick to it, you should have a fixed goal or target. For now, my target is to become green, so I'm practicing for it, you should also have some similar target in order to stick to it(you already mentioned that you like cp)

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6 years ago, hide # |
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I will give you tips according to my experience:

  • Compete with your friends. Competing with your friends makes you very competitive to beat them.

  • Compete online instead of virtual. Competing online gives you a boost to try as hard as you can to improve your rating.(You should care about rating though, rating doesn't always mean that it is your real rating and potential.)

  • Set a target and never give it up until you reach it.

  • Read editorials of problems you couldn't solve and be good at maths(maths is the basic unit of competitive programming) and finally, read about new ideas,algorithms and data structures.

  • Believe in yourself. Everyone is special and has his own ups and downs. Always try to improve what you are weak in.

I started competitive programming 8 months ago. My target is to reach IOI. I started with little knowledge about programming(I was newbie). Now I am blue by working hard and following my dreams to reach IOI one day. Hard working is not easy, but its results are sweet!

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    6 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    Awwww <3, you are so young yet you are so wise. well, I don't know you but just wanna tell you that I'm proud of you champ, and I really appreciate your advice.

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    6 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    do you follow any road map for training? or last 8 months used any specific road map?

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      6 years ago, hide # ^ |
       
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      I participate in official codeforces contests as this makes me think more and faster to solve the problem and avoid losing rating. I sometimes read new topics and solve about them(like Dijkestra,hashing,etc...). I also try and solve what I am weak in(DP tabulation,combinatorics,etc...)

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6 years ago, hide # |
 
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  • Try to find friends who are really into it and have the same goal as you (getting better at cp), I think that helps a lot because you have people to compete with and share solutions/ideas for problems you are stuck with.
  • I do not know if you are into competing in team based contests like icpc, but if you are, I think having a team also is a huge motivation since you want to be good not only for you but also for not letting your team down.
  • Don't stop believing in yourself! “Everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowing.” Practice makes you better and if you stop practicing you will never get to the place you want to be :D
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6 years ago, hide # |
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Have a passion. Don't give up. Think it this way — Why can't I do this if they can? And Always remember my friend, You can do it. I believe in you.

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