bluescreen_off's blog

What types of competitive programmer "personalities" are there?
By bluescreen_off, history, 5 years ago, In English

This is just for a bit of fun, hope it's not too off-topic.

Just as there are people who believe in blood-type personalities, or categorize based on zodiacs, or people who use INTP and stuff like that, I'm wondering if you have noticed any "types" of competitive programmers.

Personally there are a few types in my experience, but I'd love to hear yours.

  1. Database. Studies all the algorithms from a book and reads about them nonstop. Implements them repeatedly and consistently. Kind of like brute force training.

  2. Wild genius. Of course they study the DS&A as well, but it's like insight just rains onto them as well. They connect the dots no one else sees.

  3. Anger-type. The more they code and the more they get stuck in a contest etc. They get more and more frustrated to a boiling point but in the end it's anger that motivates them to solve problems, they want to release the pent-up frustration.

  4. Joy-type. People who genuinely get a high from being stuck on problems and can't stop enjoying coding no matter what.

I've seen all of these types of people and more, but I'd seriously love to hear the types of competitive programmers you've seen in your experience.

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Comments Comments (19)
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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +119 Vote: I do not like it

Chinese-type

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5 years ago, hide # |
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Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

The ones who have 100 lines of template code VS the ones who write data structures/algo implementations from the ground up

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +151 Vote: I do not like it
  1. Useless blog type. gets a lot of downvotes. Posts useless blogs through unrated alts.
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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +54 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for letting me know I fit all but genius

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

"ban this cheater right now" type

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

So... um... joy-type is basically a masochist?

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    5 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
    Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    Yes, in a good way. There should exist a better wording than masochism hopefully. xD

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    5 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
    Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

    Talking as someone that only fits in the joy-type (in my opinion), it should be changed to joy-solve because nobody likes being stuck forever in implementation but getting stuck in the idea and finally having that breakthrough is quite nice indeed. Most times even if that's aided by some editorial, in this case the breakthrough is the understanding of the solution.

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5 years ago, hide # |
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Vote: I like it -15 Vote: I do not like it

⠀

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

the ones who ask how to improve.

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +61 Vote: I do not like it

The ones who don't solve problems but open codeforces everyday to just see these blogs.

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

indians writing comments in hindi.

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5 years ago, hide # |
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Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

One who wastes time by reading such blogs instead of upsolving contests

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

The ones who write "my code is working fine on ..(somewhere).. but is giving runtime error on codeforces"

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

russians

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5 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Meme-type: Farms contribution by posting memes in contest announcements.

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