I've been thinking about this for a while.

We all know what rating is supposed to do. It gives us an idea of our performance in contests, helps us compare ourselves with other coders, and gives us something to work towards.

But I feel like different people see it very differently.

For some people, reaching the next color is a huge goal. They want to become Specialist, Expert, Candidate Master, or even go way beyond that.

For others, rating is just a number. They participate in contests, solve problems, learn new things, and don't really care that much about the number next to their handle.

And then there are people who are genuinely happy after gaining 20 rating but spend the entire evening thinking about losing 30.

I think the interesting part is that two people with the same rating can have completely different goals.

One person might be trying to reach 1400. Another might be trying to reach 2400. Someone else might just enjoy solving problems and not have a target at all.

Personally, I think rating is useful because it gives us a way to track progress. But it can also be misleading if we start treating every contest as a judgment of how good we are.

One bad contest doesn't erase everything you've learned, and one good contest doesn't mean you've mastered everything.

I'm curious about how other people here think about this.

A few questions:

What is your current rating, and what rating are you aiming for?

Do you genuinely care about your rating, or is solving problems more important to you?

Have you ever changed how you practise because of your rating?

I'm interested in hearing different perspectives, especially from people at very different rating levels.

Let's hear it.