Hello everyone. I am a codeforcer for two and half years. I took part more than 130 contests, write hundreds of comments and blogs. Now it's time to say goodbye, but not fairwell, to contests. My English is not very good, but my words are sincere.

As a Physics PhD new grad try to become a sofeware engineer, I took part in my first codeforces contest in 2020. My initial reason for the codeforces, is to practice algorithm, since I found it difficult to solve the hard tag problem in leetcode weekly contest, and a experience leetcoder told me: "if you want to solve harder problem in leetcode, try codeforces, and if you can solve 2400 rating problem in codeforces, leetcode problem is just piece of cake. "

So I took part my first contest: educational codeforces 97. The results was very good, I solved four problems and get a ranking of 600+. However, my second contest is a disaster and give me huge lesson. I found it difficult even for reaching blue. I keep practicing, focusing on problems that close to my rating. Efforts finally pay off. In my first contest, I thought 2000 rating problem is very hard and nearly unconquerable. But now, I can finish most of the 2000 rating problem during contest. I can even AC 2400 and 2500 rating problem.

I reached my highest rating 2204 last year, which make me, but it's a "fragile" high rating by luck since I just drop down to expert only a few contests. This time I reach candidate master again, but is more stable. If you believe, you can see my rating graph. In my most recent contest (round 875), I got a very good performance. I solved three problems, problem 1C is in last minute, and get top 200 in a contest that rated for only div1 users.

Thanks to codeforces, I also have much greater performance in leetcode contest. I reach top 20 many times and won a bunch of real prizes.

Thakns to codeforces, I entered Google Code Jam 2022 round 3, and won a T-shirt.

Besides contests, codeforces is also a lovely community. Comments and blogs are very interesting here, even some are highly downvoted. For me, I try to be sincere and friendly, so my contribution is also good. You are more than welcome to upvote this blog and leave comments.

Then you may ask: why I say goodbye for such a good platform? It's not platform, it's about jobs.

I faced very great difficulty finding jobs. I got a PhD in August 2022, and when I am looking for jobs in United states, I found it extremely difficult. I am good at algorithms, but they only ask very easy coding questions. The most difficult problem asked during interview is a 1300 rating codeforces problem. I solved it very quickly during interview but still cannot proceed next round, because I cannot write a "Thread safe singleton class".

More times, the HR just reject my resume because I have no experience, no internship. Even for Google and Amazon, I know I can pass coding interview, but they just threw my resume to rubbish bin and didn't gave me any chance.

Then, I just split myself into halves, preparing for jobs in days and practicing codeforces or leetcode in nights. However this is still not enough, I am still unemployed, and my money deposit is running out in a few months. Now I need to 100 percent focusing on my jobs. get a job, get a job, get a job!

If you are a software engineer in US, you are welcome to give me a reference if you can. I have physics PhD degree. I am good at Java, python, c++, backend technologies like SpringBoot, Feign clients, and frontend technologies like javascript and React. I also have experience in machine learning. What's more, I got AWS certificate recently.

I am not saying fairwell. If I find a stable paid job and I get used to the work environment, I will still come back for contests. I even want to be a problem setter for contest. It's just a goodbye. It's so enjoyable competing and solving problems in codeforces.

Finally, Thank you MikeMirzayanov for this great platform.