Hi everyone,

Unpopular opinion: below roughly 1700, Codeforces is mostly a pattern-recognition contest, not a problem-solving contest.

Look at what actually shows up in Div. 2 A to D:

Prefix sums, two pointers, binary search on the answer “Sort it and greedy” Parity, gcd, and constructive tricks you either know or don’t DP states that are variations of problems you’ve seen before

People who’ve seen 500 problems solve them fast. People who haven’t get stuck, no matter how smart they are. That makes the rating at this level partly a measure of how much you’ve grinded, not how well you think.

The counterargument (and I half believe it): patterns are skill. Recognizing which tool fits is exactly what good problem solvers do, and the same people climb to 2000+ anyway.

So where do you stand?

A) Early rating is mostly memorized patterns B) It’s real thinking, and grinding just builds that skill C) It’s a mix, and the balance changes as you climb

Reply with your letter, your current rating, and one problem that convinced you. I’m especially curious whether people above 2000 think the answer flips at higher levels.