ItsNotMeItsYou's blog

By ItsNotMeItsYou, 5 days ago, In English

Sorry for underestimating the difficulties of the problems, especially B2 and D. We tried to serve as many cool problems as we could. And apparently, this led to some difficult ones.

Thank you for participating in the round. We all hope you enjoyed all of our problems.

2258A - Odd Eraser Idea: ItsNotMeItsYou, mychecksdead

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2258B1 - Carrot Chopdown (Easy Version) Idea: mychecksdead

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2258B2 - Carrot Chopdown (Hard Version) Idea: mychecksdead (This problem was originally designed with only $$$k=2$$$; thanks to ItsNotMeItsYou for expanding on the idea.)

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2258C - Far Cities Idea: Seferoglu (This problem was originally designed simply to find the furthest node from the root; thanks to cadmiumky for expanding on the idea. Thanks to robert9524 for providing stronger tests on cutting random solutions without an adaptive grader.)

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2258D - Magic Tiles Idea: ItsNotMeItsYou

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2258E - DivMEX Idea: ItsNotMeItsYou, carcinisation (This problem was actually designed differently. Thanks to anpaio for this version.)

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2258F - Plus Minus Tree Idea: ItsNotMeItsYou

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By ItsNotMeItsYou, 9 days ago, In English

Merhaba Codeforces!

We are proud to invite you to Codeforces Round 1118 (Div. 2), which will be held on Aug/29/2026 17:35 (Moscow time).

The round will be rated for participants whose rating is below 2100, but higher rated users are also welcome to participate out of competition. You will be given 6 problems, one of which will be divided into a subtask, and 2 hours to solve them. Also, there is at least one interactive problem, so you are recommended to read the guide to interactive problems if you have not encountered them before.

The problems were authored by me (ItsNotMeItsYou), carcinisation, mychecksdead and Seferoglu.

This round was prepared by some members of the 2025 and 2026 IOI team of Türkiye, and we hope you enjoy all our problems.

We would like to thank:

Score distribution: $$$500-(750+1000)-1250-2000-2250-3000$$$

Good luck & have fun!

UPD: The editorial is out! Sorry for underestimating the difficulties of the problems, especially B2 and D. We tried to serve as many cool problems as we could. And apparently, this led to some difficult ones.

Congratulations to the winners:

Official participants (subjects to change):

Unofficial participants (subjects to change):

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By ItsNotMeItsYou, 11 months ago, In English

I’m super happy to share that I finally became a Grandmaster after three lucky contests!

I wanted to write a blog about how I reached GM, but I don’t think I’m at that level yet. And if I lose my red color in the next contest, it would look kinda funny, so let’s not do that now.

I’m mainly writing this post to thank some amazing people and, of course, to celebrate finally reaching GM (feels kinda cool, not gonna lie :P).

Also, what a crazy coincidence: Exactly 356 days ago, I became a Master for the first time with +116, and yesterday I became a Grandmaster with +116 again!

Big thanks to my amazing mentors AhmetKaan and tolbi, my awesome school friends carcinisation, Seferoglu, and PieArmy (super competitive and super fun), and all the great people I’ve met along the way. :heart:

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By ItsNotMeItsYou, 17 months ago, In English

Hey everyone,

I know this is probably going to be cringe and shameful, but I really need help because it feels like I’m stuck in a big hole.

The team selection for my country's informatics olympiad will probably be in about a month, and to be honest, I’m kind of screwed right now. I'm terrible at olympiad-style competitive programming, and I suck at Codeforces-style contests too—but olympiads are a whole other level.

My biggest issue is time management. Spending five hours on three problems feels like an eternity. If I can’t solve something in the first 1.5 hours, I just give up and completely lose focus for the rest of the contest. I find it really hard to sit there and keep pushing when nothing's working. Even when I tell myself to move on, it just doesn't happen. Plus, I get crazy anxious and stressed both before and during the contest. If I feel like I’m messing up, it all goes downhill from there. I can't seem to control it, and it totally ruins my performance.

I’m not great at olympiad-style problems either. From what I’ve heard, these contests have some seriously weird and complex problems. Recently, I tried solving some past IZHO problems, and I was honestly lost. The problem style is just so different from what I’ve seen before, and when I can’t even get started, my brain just shuts off.

In terms of algorithms, I can handle most topics up to the very hard problems in the USACO Guide’s gold section. In the platinum section, I think I can solve some of the hard problems within 1.5-2 hours. So, algorithmically, I’m feeling fine. (But here's the thing—I’m pretty sure our olympiad doesn’t have any communication, interactive, or constructive problems. We just need to focus on the classic types, so that’s what I need to be working on. You don’t need to factor that in, just wanted to clarify.)

I’ve got exactly one month to prepare, and I’m definitely committed to putting in the work. But I've read a ton of blog posts on this subject, and most of them just talk about problem-solving strategies, which are helpful but not what I need right now. My real struggle is psychological. I need advice on how to deal with long contests without burning out, how to stay calm when I’m stuck, and how to keep my confidence from totally disappearing. Right now, every contest feels like a mental battle, and I don’t know how to fix it.

If anyone has gone through this or has any tips, I’d really appreciate it. How do I stay focused for longer, deal with the stress, and build my confidence for the contest?

Thanks in advance!

And thanks for reading all the whining of a teenager.

(Maybe I’m just depressed right now, or I’m really pushing myself too hard—maybe I’m going through burnout, or maybe I should try doing something different with my friends or talk to a psychologist or someone. Just wanted to throw that out there.)

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By ItsNotMeItsYou, 2 years ago, In English

I started coding after discovering about tolbi's history in cp, so, to honor him, I made a drawing of him. Thank you tolbi for inspiring me to begin learning such an incredible subject.

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