I’m practicing competitive programming, but maths and especially combinatorics are my weak points. I’m okay with implementation and standard logic, but I struggle with counting problems, combinatorial observations, and math based reasoning.
I want to improve maths/combinatorics only from a CP perspective focusing on patterns, intuition, and common techniques rather than heavy theory or memorization.
I’d appreciate advice on:
**Where to start if maths basics are weak** **Which maths/combinatorics topics matter most for CP (priority-wise)** **Any beginner-friendly resources (blogs, books, playlists, CF problem sets)**
If anyone here had similar issues earlier and managed to improve, please share what worked for you.
you can try usaco guide or repovive is also a good resource i recently came across
sure i'll check it out :D
I have one word.. "Practice."
yeah i am doing that but without the idea of certain math concepts its hard to solve few questions
Which topics?
any question where we need to prove smth using mathematical things
Do you know AoPS?
No idea
For me, during high school, I also faced the same thing, I've practiced a lot but I don't see much difference about improving, so after high school then I spent 1 year for JEE preparation, of course its completely messed up with my CP carrier, the only thing that I liked about JEE is maths algebra only, so I have learned a lot about combinatoric from there, you can also watch this video Permutations And Combinations | JEE 2025 | All Concepts And Questions, it might help you, also you can learn from the book cses handbook
Thanks bro :)
will go through that
i had a feeling that i shld have prepared for JEE well , it would've helped here too :(
Same problem here. Number theory and combinatorics really put me off.
This seems like a good resource that I came across and will use to practice after my finals, hopefully.
https://cp-algorithms.com/index.html
Yeah sure !!
but arent some algorithms there advanced?
yeah, but they might prove fruitful in the long run. I'm thinking of doing repovive as well cause it kinda seems good as a starting point. I'm honestly very confused. You suggest something as well pls :/
I think, you can consider the book called "Mathematical Circles : Russain Experience".
sure bro ! thanks for the suggestion : )
Concrete Mathematics is the goto usually.
yeah the book by KMP algorithm guy right?
I mean you can go to old codechef youtube vidoes and for the guide you go for the holy book of cp Algorithms for Competitive Programming or also follow cses guide , other can do practice that's only make you perfect.