Hello everyone!

I am a 7th grade student and I recently started learning competitive programming.

When I first found Codeforces, I didn't understand many things. There were ratings, contests, editorials, problems with many different tags, and a lot of people who were much better than me.

At first, I thought I had to be really good to use Codeforces. But after trying some problems, I realized that I can just start slowly.

So here are some things I learned.

1. You don't have to be good at the beginning

When I started, I couldn't solve many problems.

Sometimes I spent a lot of time on a problem and still got nowhere.

I used to think this meant I was bad at programming.

Now I think it is normal.

If you are a beginner, you don't need to solve everything. Solving one easy problem is still progress.

1. Rating is not everything

I think rating is fun to look at, but it can also make you nervous.

Sometimes your rating goes down after a contest.

It happened to me too, and it doesn't feel very good.

But losing rating doesn't mean you learned nothing.

Maybe you made some silly mistakes. Maybe the problems were about things you haven't learned yet.

I think the important thing is to learn something from the contest.

1. Read the editorial

After a contest, I like reading editorials for problems that I couldn't solve.

Sometimes I don't understand the editorial at first.

But after reading it carefully, I can usually understand the main idea.

I try to close the editorial and write the solution myself after that.

For me, this is much better than just copying someone else's code.

1. WA is normal

Getting Wrong Answer can be really annoying.

Sometimes I look at my code for a long time and can't see the problem.

Then I find out that I forgot one small case.

It can be something very simple.

But I think these mistakes are useful because they teach me to be more careful.

1. Try before looking at the solution

When I see a difficult problem, sometimes I want to look at the answer immediately.

I'm trying not to do that.

I usually think about the problem for a while first.

If I still can't solve it, I read a hint or the editorial.

I think trying by yourself is important, even if you fail.

1. Ask when you don't understand

There are many things in competitive programming that I don't understand yet.

I think it is okay to ask other people for help.

But I should try to understand the problem first and ask a clear question.

For example, instead of saying:

"How do I solve this?"

I can ask:

"I understand this part, but I don't understand why binary search can be used here."

That makes it easier for someone to explain.

1. Don't compare yourself too much

On Codeforces, I see people who can solve problems very quickly.

Sometimes I think:

"How can they do that so fast?"

But everyone starts at a different level.

I'm only in 7th grade, so I still have a lot of time to learn.

I don't need to become very good immediately.

I just want to become a little better than I was before.

Conclusion

I'm still a beginner, so maybe some of the things I wrote are not perfect.

These are just things I have learned since I started Codeforces.

If I made a mistake somewhere, please tell me. I would be happy to learn from you.

Thanks for reading!

Good luck and have fun!