Hi Codeforces! My 14-year-old brother (10th standard, India) loves gaming (Minecraft, chess) and knows basic math but has little coding experience due to rote learning and poor schooling. I want him to enjoy competitive programming and excel. How do I make it fun? Context: He’s new to coding (some Scratch, Python).
Questions: Fun, beginner-friendly platforms or problems for a teen?
How to keep him motivated through tough problems?
Best resources (videos, apps) for a 10th-grader?
Game-like coding contests or communities for kids?
Plan: Start with CodeCombat, solve easy HackerRank problems together, reward his first “Accepted.”
Share tips or stories on making competitive programming fun for a beginner!
Thanks!
i_m_abbhay
There are 944 problem rated as *800 on Codeforces now. Why don't you try these? I think your brother should be able to solve some *1000 to *1200 before these problems run out.
check out leetcode. most of the easies there are just implementation and are great for learning the syntax of a language.
Codeforces
Especially Atcoder
Just have a rest or try to get help from others(like you).
Youtube, wikipedia, editorial in Codeforces?
I don't think it's necessary, he has been a 14-years-old boy, even a year older than me, game-like contests are not very efficient.
toby, age 3, alcoholic
Get some of his friends interested! One of the best motivators is a good community. I started at 14 and that's what kept me engaged until I developed strong intrinsic motivation.
At first, try not to be hard on him, I once tried to get one of my siblings into competitive programming but they weren't interested so it failed, Now, when they got self-motivated, they started practicing by themselves without me interventing.
Since he knows some python and basics of programming I think he might start with 800-rated problems on cf, and when he feels they are easy he start solving harder problems.
When he knows more about the problems style, you may start teaching him some basic techniques and algorithms such as (binary search, frequency array, prefix sums, 2 pointers, bit manipulation)
And beside the other tips about how to train or how to stay motivated, I would recommend you try to get him to participate in a national Olympiad or a local competitive programming club (maybe in your local college), that would help him make friends and get engaged.
And finally I personally know some CPers who started at 12~14 years and they're doing great right now.
Wish you both luck!!!
Thanks All for your time! I really appreciate your help. I will try to incorporate the things mentioned in here and will update you all. Thanks again :)
Introducing someone without initial genuine interest into CP is probably one of the ultra cruelties in the world...
Bro, how can they know if we do not introduce it? Like I also found out from someone, right? And why not I be the one to teach it to him? I am not imposing it on him! Just introducing it and working with him to develop an interest.