I've always wondered about the optimal way to practice (I even did spam some reds back in the days), and while there definitely isn't any "magic" that's going to accelerate your growth, a mere psychological factor did result in immense growth for me after being stuck for so long (my rating increased from 1523 to 1853 in three months and my level was consistent, in other words it wasn't just some lucky contests). Yet, I still have many questions unanswered. For instance, can sometimes too much practicing lead to detrimental results?

Because of this, I, alongside Lime. designed a brief survey (it takes less than two minutes to fill) to gather insights from programmers across different levels. Currently, we have 94 responses. Hopefully, after having big enough sample, I'll be sharing the results on what factors really affect one's growth and what don't.

Please take two minutes to fill the survey here: survey

If you believe there are additional factors that I should include in the survey—perhaps something unique from your personal experience—please don’t hesitate to DM me or comment down below.