Greetings dear Codeforces community,

I always wanted to write a post that reflects my progress in turning purple after starting competitive programming for three years, and also to record such a short moment, so here it is.

I just reached a 1900+ rating after participating in Codeforces Round 963 (Div. 2) by finishing ABC super quickly, meanwhile, six thousand contestants solved them during the contest. So my 'purpleness' is shaky and I wanted to secure it in the upcoming contests.

Yesterday night, when I was studying a certain dp topic, I was asked by my friend YJ365723 "Do you think problem solving skill in CP is much like sports".

I was intrigued by this analogy. I always treat Codeforces contests pretty seriously, but my initial motive for doing CP is to get a taste of computer science. I then realized doing contests is a way to boost my ego.

Back to the sports analogy, in my case, I do sport solely because I want good health and to entertain myself. People have goals like having a super strong bicep or winning Olympic medals. But I'm too lazy to make the effort for these goals, they are too specific to me.

My attitude on CP is very similar to this if replaces "health" with "problem-solving skill". They both benefit me in general. The "specific goal" is an analogy to the Codeforces rating, which is much less important than problem-solving skills, and CP itself.

Some people always complain that "the problem-setting of this contest is so bad", "problem C in this contest is way too simple/hard"...

To be super straightforward, these complaints are nothing but saying "This contest isn't allowing me to demonstrate my skills so my rating drops, it's not my fault."

If you deserve your current rating, you can defend it; otherwise, it's likely to drop. If you feel significantly depressed or stressed when your rating drops, why don't take a break from the contest and focus on studying different data structures or algorithms instead of yelling at the problems? It's always good to improve your problem-solving skills and knowledge in programming, which will help you secure your rating in the future.

I'm turning blue again as I flunked the contest this morning(in my time), does that mean that I don't deserve the purple handle? Probably, I have complaints too. I know my level, probably I cannot reach purple in the next ten rounds, but I know I will reach the rating that reflects my skill and level, for me, it's even better than bluffing with the purple handle.

(But I'm using the purple handle for this blog, ha!)

Finally couple advice:

Study for CS. Study algorithms & data structures. Practice problem-solving skills. To some extent, study for CP. Don't study for Codeforces, but of course study on Codeforces.

Best wishes

UPD:

After struggling for a little while, I improved my programming skills and regained the purple handle after Codeforces Round 969 (Div. 2), in which I reached my best contest rank and rating. Unfortunately, I'm still questioning myself, mainly because the ratings of all the problems I solved are below 2000 and I struggled a lot when solving them. I wish I could secure the "purpleness" and maintain my performance after.