After a long rollercoaster ride, I finally hit 1608 and reached blue!

Started from the very bottom at 396, and after countless ups and downs—especially that endless loop between 1300–1400 where I kept bouncing back (1514 → 1488 → 1400 → 1355... you know the pain)—it somehow happened.

I’m still far from being a good coder (DP still scares me), but this is a nice milestone. If you’re stuck in gray/green/cyan right now, just keep solving and don’t obsess over the rating. It will come.

Thanks to the whole community for the resources and motivation. Next stop: probably dropping back to 1500 in the next contest

Onward!