"I almost never got beyond that, my code was ugly"

I can totally relate to this. You have been in my friends list from a long time. I love your code's simplicity — they are very much readable to me.

As newbie, you can and should solve problems till 1500 without much knowledge — it would improve your basic CP skills like implementation, algorithmic thinking. Yes, some problems would require knowledge of DP, DFS, Binary search — but they are rare.

This has been my experience — I too initially started learning heavy topics, but later realized I should focus more on implementation and basic math problems.

Get comfortable till Div2D problems.

And to leave behind a bad obsession in 2020. :)

Please predict mine. Thanks.

I actively play pubg.

I will graduate next year June. I started CP at age 22 :) Yes, chances are slim that I will ever make it to Red, but will keep trying my best until I graduate (1 more year to go).

PS — I am an Indian. Most of this community say Indians do CP for Job. But you see — we don't get the exposure at early age (due to many reasons which you can't even think). The first time I was exposed to programming was when I was 19. No hate to anyone though.

Number do na XD. (Sarcasm h bas :P)

From my profile page, Rank displayed is 6204.

Whereas from the contest's standing page, it's 8146. Is this a bug or is there some reason behind it?

Thanks tor the detailed explanation. I will try adhering to it as much as I can.

No. I don't code entire day. Being an ex e-sports player, I still actively play games as well.

"Well, 50-60% isn't enough is it? " Definitely not. I know I have to pump up the metrics. 1000-1300 seems to be a better learning range to me.

...are solving blindly without retrospection about the problems you've been solving... please elaborate this.

Yes. I have been practicing them. Thanks :)

Thanks :)

Yes, my current practice strategy is composed of solving 900 — 1500 rated problems of Implementation / greedy / math problems. For contests, I try upsolving the problems as mentioned (till Div2C and Div3D). I already did follow Masataka Yoneda's blog in April and solved almost 50% of ABC B, C problems. Since things started turning out to be monotonous, I moved to CF problems for a change.

Thanks. I definitely am looking forward to achieve it.

Well, given the current level of Div2A problems, I can solve ,let's say 50-60% of them in my practice session — some cause me trouble to think — it's pretty much just the speed and accuracy for Div2A for such problems. Sometimes I have to get a WA before an AC. While for some, I overthink them although solution requires extremely simple observations.

Yes, I am comfortable with most of 800 — 1000 Rated problems (if you may run a visualizer on my profile). That's why I am now focusing on a quite higher rating range (till 1500). I can solve few of 1400's now. Few are doable. Most require me to think for an hours.

Yes, I have felt what you say about algorithms — and should I suggest to my peers, don't start with algorithms until you are good with implementation problems — reason being they can't be applied in real contests because weak implementation skills will take up most of the contest time in solving A and B problems.

I followed Masataka Yoneda's tutorial for some time. You may check my progress here : [https://kenkoooo.com/atcoder#/table/arnab_9997] I was able to solve ABC B within 10-15 mins and C within 30-40 mins (max time).