kilobyte136's blog

By kilobyte136, history, 5 months ago, In English

Hey Codeforces,

One thing that confused me early on: CF problem ratings aren't assigned by setters — they're crowd-sourced from contest performance. A problem rated 900 might have been solved by fewer people than an 800 in the same round, just because it appeared later in the standings. This means the raw rating is sometimes a poor proxy for actual learning difficulty, especially for beginners.

For example, some 900-rated problems require a clean observation you either see or you don't, while certain 800s are just tedious implementation with no real insight. For someone grinding Div 3/4, blindly following rating order can be discouraging or just inefficient.

I put together a curated problem sheet with this in mind: 70 problems across the 800–1000 range, ordered by what I'd call learning difficulty rather than raw CF rating. Each problem has a note explaining why it's placed where it is, and a Div 3/Div 4 badge so you know what type of contest it came from.

A preview

Preview

A few things that might be useful:

  • Progress is saved via URL hash — just bookmark the link, no account needed
  • There's a handle tracker: enter your CF handle and it auto-marks problems you've already AC'd
  • The curation criteria page lists the 5 rules every problem must satisfy — if you think something doesn't belong, cite the rule and suggest a replacement via feedback
  • 22 recommended Div 3/4 rounds are listed for when you're ready to test yourself under contest conditions

Link: cf-sheet.vercel.app

Happy to discuss the ordering choices or problem selection in the comments. If you think a specific problem is misplaced or shouldn't be there, I'm genuinely open to changes.

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Can you share your criteria for selecting them?

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Thank you very much

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can you make a divisions category and a div 3 and 4 past contest library? TYSM that would be very helpful

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I have noticed that some of the links don't move you to the exact contest that they are mentioned to. Could you please look into that? Thank you 🙂

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Why in the world would anyone grind problems with 800 rating?

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    to waste minimal time solving the easier questions in div 2 like the first 2 questions are usually 800~1000 rating

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how did you made that

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I dont understandd this community bruv. Like why tf would this post have downvotes

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282A is shown as 1000 rated

but i think it is easier than most 800 and in its tag on official problem it is shown as *800 so i think their must have been sum mistake

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    Sure, I'm on it. I'll fix the issues immediately

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      ok

      and tbh i tried solving problems from it and i loved it! it is best for beginners like me and give them perfect slope from easy to moderate to enough, rated problem

      so one doesnt get demotivated

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I have analyzed why the post may be gaining downvotes, it could be due to my tone and the image. ill remove the image and fix my tone & also update the sheet

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Actual challenging problems for newbies (1200-1300, recent rounds) would be much more beneficial than the problems on this sheet, which are mostly simulation and very basic greedy/math

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    True, I will amend the sheet in the future regarding those problems but currently, they would treat this sheet as a Motivator to them without them getting discouraged, it slowly progresses rather than hitting them hard in the face. Appreciate the feedback.

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As a newbie, I am following this sheat although problems are not too much difficult that we usually face in nowadays in div2 but every problem is teaching something. APPRECIATED :).

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So The blind leading the blind ... nice

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    yes, he is leading me towards your home :)

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    i understand your concern about the problems not being too hard which would rather cause them to become overconfident, but keeping all this in mind, i have organized the sheet for slow progression, it may not be difficult but it allows them to progress slowly and acts as a constant support for them to solve harder problems, i will fs add new sections regarding harder problems so that after getting comfy with the base level or the "beginner level" they can progress towards harder parts of problem solving, slowly ofcourse. Appreciate the Feedback!