Not-Afraid's blog

I'm Not-Afraid. Ask Me Anything!
By Not-Afraid, history, 4 years ago, In English

Hi everyone. Ask me anything.

UPD: Happy Diwali to all the Indians out there.

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4 years ago, # |
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Is this contest will be normal for u or not? Or u will just sent a wa on one of the problems?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    I don't submit WA intentionally, it's just that i can't solve problem. btw, I will try my best to solve 2-3 problems today.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      You are studying in which college, dude?

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        AIT, Pune.

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          :)

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            4 years ago, # ^ |
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            Thank you for your kind words :)
            In my opinion try different strategies & choose which works best for you. But i will definitely recommend you to participate in as many contests as you can on Codeforces & Atcoder. Upsolving/virtual participating Atcoder Beginner & Codeforces Div 3 contests could be a good start along with HackerEarth.

            PS: At some point of time i was also at the same place where you are. I felt like a retard and once even thought to quit CP. But i kept practicing and improved with time.
            Best of luck.

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          Why did you sit instead of standing straight with that hoodie (like Em in Not Afraid) ? It would look better imo ;)

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            4 years ago, # ^ |
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            Hm it would look better if it was a terrace(like in the song). Also the idea for this pose was given by my ICPC team mates.
            PS: This pic is from the college where we went for ICPC regionals.
            PS2: Will consider this idea for future clicks lol.

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4 years ago, # |
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why your rating change gradiant is so random?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    i perform good sometimes when problems are of topics in which i am strong(which happens rarely) and then comes down again.

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4 years ago, # |
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how do you become candidate master :) what was your daily work

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    praticed a lot on CF and participated in contests. but i didn't solved tough problems(which i regret sometimes) like more than 1700(rating) so my rating fluctuates a lot.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      do u still struggle with 1700 problems when your are cm?

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        yes, when the problem is greedy/constructive i do struggle a lot.

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4 years ago, # |
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Why are you "Not-Afraid"?

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4 years ago, # |
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Are you serious?

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4 years ago, # |
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what u r afraid of ?

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4 years ago, # |
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how to be a green coder?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    practice more problems i guess. try changing strategy if you are not improving.

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4 years ago, # |
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How to increase my rating by exactly one point?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    If I were you, I would be both afraid and excited to participate. (I might never be you though)

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    hey kostia244 are you in grade 11?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    there are several ways. the easiest one is to ask someone with consistent rating > 2600 participate using your account.
    btw since you have reached 2599, you will also reach 2600. so just chill.

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4 years ago, # |
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What percentage of people using CF do you think know how to write a C++ recursive lambda without using std::function?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    almost 0%.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Time to write a blog with 4 short ways of writing recursive lambdas and get contribution (at least that's what me and Monogon are here for). I might ask him to write it though. Can't see him lose his source of dopamine :p

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Oh I see you use y-combinator...
    Do you remember when I asked you that question?

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Yeah. There are four ways I know that you can use for writing recursive lambdas. One of them being Y combinators.

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        what a coincidence. Yesterday when I was solving a problem, the method you told me to use was slow. Then I googled it and found about y-combinator. Even though I don't know anything about that, I just copy pasted that code and it worked lol. Do send me a link if you write a blog post about that.

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          It's easier to explain how to use the STL function wrapper :p It is slow for many reasons, the details of which I'm not going to discuss here. Y combinators come to the rescue as they avoid extra overhead. You can use the Y combinator technique without the whole class interface thing though. Feed a lambda to itself.

          auto factorial = [&] (auto self, int64_t n) -> int64_t {
    return n == 1 ? 1 : n * self(self, n - 1);
};

std::cout << factorial(factorial, 10) << '\n';
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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          Can you share the problem and your submission? Since I learnt about std::function, I've always used it every time I need to write recursive code and have never gotten TLE or noticed significant slowdown in runtime.

          And if anyone knows about cases where std::function doesn't work (too slow, etc), please let me know.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    I even don't know what it is? could you please explain me

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4 years ago, # |
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As you are having around 3 years of competitive programming experience, can you share anything you learnt during your journey, any mistakes you made that you regret. And what advice would you give to someone who is practicing hard since the last one year (solved more than 800+ problems / participated in 60+ contests) but still can't reach expert even ONCE.

P.S — If you can reach CM once, then you can do it again. Your current rating doesn't matter much, the experience you have gained is what I am trying to learn from

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    can you share anything you learnt during your journey?
    -> people keep asking(not to me but on CF and other platforms) how to become X on platform Y and the answer to all those questions i found is practice. Previous background in maths helps a lot. There's a bar beyond which you can't go and that's the reason not everyone is red here. people claim nothing is impossible, but i disagree with it.

    any mistakes you made that you regret?
    -> I should have solved more tougher problems while practicing. I solved a lot of easy problems.

    what advice would you give to someone who is practicing hard since the last one year (solved more than 800+ problems / participated in 60+ contests) but still can't reach expert even ONCE?
    -> Well, i became expert after ~75 contests. so keep praticing. There were days, when i also thought that i will never even reach pupil but with time you improve if you keep practicing.

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4 years ago, # |
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how to become a candidate master in 6 months

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    well, different strategies works for different people but this might help you to give some ideas how to practice.

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4 years ago, # |
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I thought I will never be newbie again hopefully. Those days were really tough. Now I am afraid. (You were in my friend list, may be I added you from comment section. Seeing your handle green I was shocked! best of luck brother)

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4 years ago, # |
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what u r not afraid of ?

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4 years ago, # |
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Can you teach me something about FFT?

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4 years ago, # |
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I am from your fun club ...How do you feel it ??

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4 years ago, # |
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Hello, are you Eminem in disguise?

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4 years ago, # |
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Why does the predicted mass of the quantum vacuum have little effect on the expansion of the universe?

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4 years ago, # |
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Anything!?

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4 years ago, # |
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What is more interesting than DP, which according to u I should also focus for becoming good or which helped u reach CM?

(I mean most problems are/can be solved using DP easily but is there something else too which I should become good at eg:- Segment trees and something of that sort)

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    i don't agree that most problems are/can be solved using DP easily. solve problems and when you find that you are stuck and some DS/Algo is required then read that.

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4 years ago, # |
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what was the cause of your downfall??

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4 years ago, # |
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I am having a cheap mindset for a long time. How can I get rid of this negativity?

My friends who started programming seeing me are now doing better than me. Not only in this section, everyone who started anything seeing me is doing better than me. I feel like a loser. As a result, I started creating a cheap mindset. Now my mind says, "Don't show anything to anyone". But my heart orders me to share things with all. That's why I can't decide what to do. I wanted to make websites, apps but I couldn't do any of those. Because I think "If my friends see this, they will also start doing these and they will be better than me." My mind doesn't want to learn anything from anyone. But I didn't have this mindset when I started programming. I was curious, helpful. What happened to me? How can I get rid of this?

Sorry for my bad English. Please don't downvote me. I had to write this because If I hadn't written this here I would have burst into negativity. Thank You.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    If i go deep into this topic and answer, it will be kind of preaching but honestly with such mindset you will never go far not only in CP but in any other field. so try changing your this mindset.

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4 years ago, # |
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hi not-afraid i feel the same way as you, our stories are similar i guess, i have been following you for a long time, even i dont have much motivation to continue cp, my only dream was to become CM before the end of nov but i wasnt able to do it, i believe i will never become one, but i have found peace with it i guess, now i do this for fun and checking my limits i guess. I am doing job now, i wish i had been motivated in college.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    hi bruh, tbh i myself never dared to think that i have to become CM but during the lockdown something happened and eventually i became CM. But it's good that you found peace, i will also try smh.

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4 years ago, # |
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i'm anything! Ask me eva.

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4 years ago, # |
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Your favorite easy problem(1200-1500).

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    https://cses.fi/problemset/task/1087.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Good problem, thank you sir! Although, I did a dp[i][character], I wonder if you have any different insights on it? However, tbh, I think that problem is 1600-1800 cf.

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        A simple greedy algorithm works on that problem.

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          my solution is indeed greedy. Take smallest(by length) prefix having all characters atleast once and add last character to ans and remove it(prefix). Keep doing it until the string is not empty. At the end add one more character which was not in the last prefix & if all characters were in last prefix then add any character. code

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4 years ago, # |
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What's your atm card number and cvv?

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4 years ago, # |
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How did you manage to be in SecondThread's friend list?

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4 years ago, # |
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Are you trying some rainboy Stuff ? (solving rounds from back and messing up the ratings)

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    no. he does that intentionally while i am honestly unable to solve problems.

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4 years ago, # |
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Are you afraid?

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4 years ago, # |
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Why did you start competitive programming?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    In my first year of Univ. i wasn't able to qualify(was able to solve 1 question only) for our college fest coding competition and the problems in qualifier round were from codeforces, upsolving them i started Codeforces and continued participating in contests here.

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4 years ago, # |
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Happy Diwali !!

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4 years ago, # |
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How are you?

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4 years ago, # |
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Happy Diwali to all from Bangladesh

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4 years ago, # |
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Happy Diwali

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4 years ago, # |
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Where did you get placed?

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4 years ago, # |
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Do you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend?

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4 years ago, # |
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Can you tell me why I am getting WA here

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4 years ago, # |
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hey happy Diwali from India, I won't ask you I will request you to give me some coding soultion . Will you

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4 years ago, # |
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Sir, I do not know why my problem solving skills are not at all increasing...I am practising day and night since March this year both on Codechef and Codeforces but my thinking skills are still at the level of beginner...I want to do CP because I feel happy if I am able to think of some new techniques or solve a good problem which till date has scarcely happened. What can be the motivation if I am constantly failing? Losing is ok but losing all the time consistently is painful...not seeing myself making steady progress is what hurts most. https://www.codechef.com/users/sayan_1999- my Codechef profile. I am unable to understand what is so wrong in my practice. Normally, my practice involves doing A,B,C of any random contest within a time bound manner. And I find that I am stuck on C. I am not stuck because of not knowing certain algos but rather not being able to apply my knowledge. What to do? Even if people downvote me....Please Not-Afraid Sir, I hope you will have a look at my message

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    It happens at the early stage when starting competitive programming(atleast this was the case with me). So keep practicing and take part in contests as much as you can, so that you will be bounded to solve a problem within a given time. Try a2oj ladders, they are definintely helpful and you will see improvement(in some time if not immediately). read some answers here, on how to practice as a beginner.

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4 years ago, # |
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What is the art of upsolving ? I meant which way you follow to upsolve efficiently .

Because we have to upsolve the problems which we cannot find solution early . So how to do this efficiently ?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    different people follow different strategies. mine is when i can't solve a problem during a contest(like getting WA, TLE or smthg) i usually see test case(after contest) where it was failing and if i just read a problem during contest & couldn't comeup with a correct/optimal solution i give time to it thinking after contest and if still unable to solve then read the editorial or look at other's solution to get some intuition.

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4 years ago, # |
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sorry i am newbie tho. but How not be get afraid of rating ?

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4 years ago, # |
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Can you tell me the best way (according to you) to practice for CP along with mastering/becoming decent with DSA.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    I would say there is no best way to practice, different strategies work for different people. You have to figure it out on your own, which one works for you.
    The best that works for me is read some topic i don't know, practice it's questions. Now how do i know that i don't know a particular topic? Mostly while participating in contests/upsolving when i came to know that a particular problem requires something that i don't know and i just read it. So participate as much as you can.

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4 years ago, # |
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How to get contribution?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    Write some tutorial that isn't already available here on CF or something that is useful for the community.

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4 years ago, # |
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JD ko thappad maar sakta hai kya ?

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4 years ago, # |
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konsa sem chalra hai? Aur cse wala hai ki koi aur branch?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    7th sem IT

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      areyy tagda bhaiya. idhar 3rd sem ECE. Chahiye CSE tha but nahi ho saka. Kuch random tips/life lessons learnt from CP shar kar do :)

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
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        CP bohot h ek decent company nikaalne ke liye. 80-90% kaam kr degi baaki 10-20% me CS fundamentals + project wgrh chahiye.

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          4 years ago, # ^ |
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          You also require luck, kismat, naseeb, taqdeer, and whatnot

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            4 years ago, # ^ |
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            par vo apne haath me nhi h na. but CP to h

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              4 years ago, # ^ |
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              Ya but I'm sooo afraid :(

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            4 years ago, # ^ |
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            Boobs and a vagina also helps for placements.

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4 years ago, # |
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Why you are Not-Afraid

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4 years ago, # |
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What do you do in your free time?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    because of lockdown i am at my home, so mostly either playing with my cousin's son or watching/listening something on YouTube,

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4 years ago, # |
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Do you know that there is a user called No_Afraid in Codeforces?

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    He probably wanted Not-Afraid / Not_Afraid but these were already taken XD

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      Not_Afraid is actually one of my friend who took that username when i told him that i am planning to change my handle to Not_Afraid(which is my handle on Hackerrank) using magic last year. Then i had to change my name to Not-afraid.

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4 years ago, # |
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you are an inspiration, how do you stay focused (don't tell me that you have no other option)

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4 years ago, # |
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Why did you leave Jagdish Bhagat Fan club??

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