_blub's blog

Where do I start?
By _blub, history, 34 hours ago, In English

This is my first time learning competitive coding and I'm really confused about where do I start. Some people say new problems tend to focus on thinking rather than coding while older problems focused on coding, data structures, techniques... Both sound useful but I still can't decide which one to focus on since I don't know which type of problems will be useful for my future.

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33 hours ago, hide # |
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the catalog tap in codeforces has a lot of blogs full of advices that might help you, also keep in mind that some of these advices are 10+ years old but they should still be useful.

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    32 hours ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    thanks

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29 hours ago, hide # |
 
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if you want to gain your rating, just focus on newer problems now, (its like if you wanna build a fighter jet but you are trying to build a WW1 fighter plane), im not saying, dont do older problems, but split them into 80-%20%, the bigger half should be for newer problems

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28 hours ago, hide # |
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Regular contests+Upsolving(extremely important) Refer CP-31 Sheet or CSES

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28 hours ago, hide # |
 
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My advice would be to start by participating in virtual contests for newer Div. 3 and Div. 4 rounds, while also participating live in upcoming divisions.

Don't forget to upsolve the problems you couldn't solve during the contest, 'cause that’s where the real learning happens. Once you feel comfortable and consistently score well in Divisions 3 and 4, you can step up to Division 2 and even Div. 1 + 2 rounds.

Most importantly, never get stuck in your comfort zone. If you find Div. 4 too easy, scale back on them and push yourself forward by taking on more Div. 3 and Div. 2 challenges.

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27 hours ago, hide # |
 
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I share your confusion, and I'd also really like to know the answer to this question. Personally, I prefer thinking-oriented problems; I think that's the refined and interesting soul of algorithm competitions.

Unfortunately, though, I need to participate in China's NOI-series contests, which seem to often place more emphasis on algorithms. As for the routes in other regions, actually I'm not particularly clear about them.

If we're talking purely about improving personal ability, then necessary algorithms—such as spanning trees, shortest paths, and so on—are certainly necessary. After that, what should come is a large amount of applied output and deep understanding, rather than learning new algorithms while only knowing templates. In the end, an algorithm should become a kind of thought and soul in your memory, not a string of code. You can even rely on the core trick to reconstruct it, instead of having to memorize templates all the time.

I hope this helps you, and I also hope there can be more ideas to exchange with each other.

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25 hours ago, hide # |
 
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Just do IOI problems，practice both codinng and thinking

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25 hours ago, hide # |
 
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Contact me, I will tell you everything

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24 hours ago, hide # |
 
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yo _blub, tell me something about the sift dimension pls

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24 hours ago, hide # |
 
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over there!

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23 hours ago, hide # |
 
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You really thought starting from blog was a good idea?

There are already many posts for this type of question!

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    10 hours ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    I know but most of them are old and I don't know if it's still okay to follow them.

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10 hours ago, hide # |
 
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its been a while since I gave real advice so i might as well (btw i used to be blue for some time)

anyways realistically its pretty easy to get blue in a few months you just have to solve 100-200 problems over that time, which can include in contests too. Try to solve recent 1900s, 1900s seem to be the most interesting while not being impossible but at the same time heavily adhoc. Never read editorials, and try to stay away from anything like hints.

Anyways most likely after 200 problems you'll have a good grasp and probably be around 1600s, from there you should be able to figure what you want to do and how much you enjoy cf quite naturally. Oh also don't solve anything you don't find interesting, also don't solve anything not from contests within the last 2 years.

If you want to maximise enjoyment learn adhoc and learn everything yourself.

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