Hello Codeforces community,
I've been doing competitive programming for almost four years now, starting in May 2022. Before that, I had no prior experience with programming. Despite that, my progress has been steady:
- Reached
Pupil
after 8-9 months - Reached
Specialist
in August 2023 - Reached
Expert
in February 2024
Now it's February 2025, and despite practicing regularly, I haven't been able to stabilize in Expert. Sometimes I gain rating, sometimes I lose it, but overall, I feel stuck.
I know consistency is key, and I’m putting in the effort. But recently, I'm feeling confused about my practice approach. Am I solving the right problems? Am I missing something important?
Here's what my current training looks like:
- I solve problems from past Codeforces contests, mostly
Div. 2 B/C/D
and sometimes harder problems. - I try to
upsolve problems
that I couldn’t solve during contests. - I
participate in most rated contests
and alsodo Gym contests
sometimes. - Sometimes, I practice problems from diiferent platforms like
LightOJ, CSES
.
Despite all this, I don’t feel like I’m improving significantly. Sometimes, I solve a problem and feel like I just memorized a trick rather than truly learning something new.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and advice!
Looking forward to learning from your experiences.
Thanks in advance!