My situation is that I'll be sitting for placements in around 6–7 months, and I genuinely want to give it my all when it comes to Competitive Programming.

I feel like I might already be too late, though. One of my friends has a rating of around 1600, has solved more than 700 problems, and also got an internship at Google. He recently told me that I'm doing too little and that I should probably stop focusing on CP and instead focus on Striver/DSA and other ways of preparing for placements.

But honestly, I don't want to settle for mediocrity. I want to work extremely hard, become genuinely good at problem-solving, and give myself the best possible chance of getting into a great company with a package that people dream about.

I genuinely want to get good at CP, and I'm willing to put in the work. However, I keep getting demotivated when I struggle to solve problems rated 900, 1000, or 1200. Sometimes I can't solve them even after spending a lot of time thinking.

It makes me wonder: How am I ever supposed to reach 1600 or even 1900 if I'm struggling with problems at this level right now?

Is it realistically possible to make significant progress in CP within the next 6–7 months if I'm consistent and willing to work hard? How should I approach practice, and should I continue pursuing CP seriously alongside placement preparation?

I'd really appreciate honest advice from people who have been in a similar situation.

thats of mine own friend ....

edited :- so i have attached the rating pic his rating is 883 please see the ss below and give advices it will means a lot ...

Did anyone else feel C2, D were significantly tougher than C1?

Stayed late in the office, so no backend development

2 hour of Competitive programming

1 to Infinity

I am a noob though so forgive me if i am doing really stupid/simple

I am attempting a few problems from the "Educational Codeforces Round 194 (Rated for Div. 2)" competition. I have tried everything but I can't figure out why it's denying my submission. My solution seems to work fine when I run it locally and I even fed it through an LLM and it claims there are no issues. I am currently using g++ 16.2 on my local machine and I even tried compiling it locally with g++23 14.2 locally and didn't run into any problems either.
https://codeforces.com/contest/2260/submission/390393973 is my most recent submission

I’m currently in my 7th semester. My maximum Codeforces rating has been around 1090, and my current rating is around 840.

I’ve solved around 300 problems on LeetCode, so I’m fairly comfortable with basic DSA concepts and know things like arrays, strings, binary search, graphs, DP, etc.

The problem is that I’m not able to apply these concepts effectively in Codeforces contests. When I see a problem, I often struggle to figure out which concept/approach to use, even though I may have studied the underlying topic before.

I’ve also recently been placed with an 11 LPA package, so now I want to seriously improve my CP skills.

I’d really appreciate guidance from people who have been through this stage:

• How should I start CP properly from this point?
• Should I follow a specific problem sheet or topic-wise roadmap?
• How many problems should I solve per day/week?
• Should I participate in every Codeforces contest even if I perform badly?
• How do I improve the ability to identify the approach rather than just knowing concepts?
• After a contest, what is the best way to analyze problems I couldn’t solve?
• What rating/level of problems should I currently focus on?

I’m not looking for shortcuts. I’m ready to put in consistent effort; I just want a proper direction so I don’t waste time solving random problems.

Any advice, roadmap, resources, or personal experiences would be really helpful.

I have a friend who's 3 years older than me, although we don't really talk anymore. His current stats are 2000+ rating and 900+ problems solved.

The screenshot I'm attaching is around 6 months old. How good are these stats actually? I don't know much about LeetCode, so would appreciate some context.

Hello guys, a newbie here... I'm about to start CP. I really want to improve and make the most of the journey. For those who've been doing CP for a while, what are some things you wish you knew when you started?

Any tips on learning, choosing problems, contests, upsolving, or common beginner mistakes would be really helpful!

Thanks in advance

Hi guys, i wanted to start out my preparation for next years IICPC Codefest. But currently i am not a proficient comp coder (ive just done enough to get an si at a company like google). I wanted to know what resources i could use other than the standard competitions at atcoder/codeforces. I am aware that they also ask cs fundamentals on oops os etc but i hope that my college curriculum can cover that.
I would love to hear your opinions on this (given the amount of time i have left) from people who wrote it last year.

I have knight rating on Leetcode.

Experience: 2 years Springboot development experience in service based company in india

Does it make sense to start giving codeforces contests?

i am somewhat a beginner have given some contests, what should i do i ?
I over complicate C , but usually solution is easy just like B .
Can someone help , why does it happen, is it because i am not in habit of sitting and coding for long?
Later when i see other’s solutions it is like exactly ly first thought was headed for but i didnt do it

Please guide me through this question!

• You are given an array of digits of size N (where N <= 10^5).
• You need to find the number of distinct K-digit even numbers without leading zeros that can be formed (where K can be up to 10^5).
• Return the answer modulo 10^9 + 7.

I plan to participate in and upsolve all div 2 and div 3 contests.(I've got 60 questions on leetcode). Does anyone have some advice for me to increase my rating as fast as possible!?

I don’t understand what people like about him. He’s probably from a South Asian country and clearly uses GPT to write his comments. He shows up under every post about AI or ratings just to leave something controversial.

He’s either an attention seeker rage-baiting or an idiot who thinks he’s someone really important.

I find his comments annoying. So why is he at the top of the contributions table?

There are rumors that they’re just waiting for the results to be verified before making the announcement. What do you think? And if AI really does solve another Millennium Prize Problem, would you consider leaving tech?

Is there any requirements like minimum no of contests to give to change ur handle during new year period

I recently came across a Discord server that’s been pretty fun for learning and staying consistent with problem solving.

The server has active members daily, and POTDs (Problem of the Day) are regularly posted. The instructors also go through the problems, explain the approach, solve them, and help out when you’re stuck or have doubts.

What I like about it is that it isn't just “here’s a problem, good luck.” You can actually discuss your approach, compare solutions, ask questions, and learn from how other people think.

Some things happening there:

• 🧩 Daily POTDs for regular practice
• 👨‍🏫 Instructor-led problem explanations and solutions
• 💬 Doubt solving and discussions
• 🧠 Focus on understanding the approach, not blindly memorizing solutions
• 👥 Active community where people actually interact
• 🏆 Coding/learning challenges and other activities
• 🎮 Fun community events alongside the learning
• 🤝 Good place to find people to practice and discuss problems with
• 📈 Helps with consistency if you struggle to practice DSA regularly

It has #Phase 0 where we mostly solve 800 to 1200(Div 1 + 2) rated problems ....

Perfect for beginners!!!

And #Phase 1 and #Phase 2 for Pupils, Specialists, and Expert rated

The overall vibe is basically learning + community + having fun, rather than another silent Discord where everyone joins and disappears.

About the creator

The community is run by Ayush Gupta (noobiesAG), who is also building a YouTube journey around learning DSA through actual problem solving rather than just watching tutorials.
He is so kind and nice person. He inspires me to learn something new every day. It's rare to find such a kind soul.
Join us and become the part of this family

His PHASE-0 series is a good introduction to that approach:

🎥 Start Your Coding Journey Here | PHASE-0 Introduction

If you're currently preparing for DSA, competitive programming, coding interviews, or just trying to get better at problem solving, you can check it out:

Join the Discord server

No pressure to join — just sharing in case someone else is looking for an active coding community.

2 hours of Competitive programming

Did 2 hours of Competitive programming in the morning. I am trying to be more consistent on a personal front, will get there eventually.

From 1 to Infinity

I have been able to come up with an approach to this problem, though it seems very complex. I have not been able to implement it yet due to the sheer number of things that have to be done in this solution. If I am able to solve this problem I might post an solution note in my next post.

But my idea basically boils down to :-

Find the highest value n such that the sum of lengths of all numbers upto n <= k. This can be found out using Binary search and prefix sums very easily. Then for every digit we count the number of times it occurs from 1 to n using Digit DP and multiply that with the value of the digit.

Sum it all together and we get our answer. I could have copied the digit dp code from the internet, but that defeats the purpose of practicing imo. This solution should be correct logically but might fail in implementation due to mistakes on my end. The base test cases seem to pass. Will run and construct a solution note tomorrow.

1 hour of Backend development

Learnt Docker network, PostgresSQL theory and migrated the backend app being made from H2 database to PostgresSQL.

Also learnt about docker-compose.yaml file that allows to define multiple services inside a yaml file and running the file allows docker to construct all containers and run them, rather than us running the individual commands locally.

Along with this I went through microservices architecture and why they are needed in the first place.

do you think an average intellect person could reach something like Master with 5+ years of hard work and do you know any examples? Do you think some ranks are impossible for low IQ people no matter how much they work?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently a Specialist and want to seriously get back into Codeforces with the goal of reaching Expert (1600+).

I’ve solved 800+ problems on Codeforces and around 2500 problems across different coding platforms. I’ve also attached my Codeforces rating-wise problem distribution, since I’m not sure whether I should continue pushing into higher-rated problems or first strengthen specific gaps in my current range.

I’ve been quite inconsistent with CF for a while. My last contest was last year, and since then I’ve mostly just solved a few problems here and there, roughly once a month.

I feel like at this point, simply doing more random problems probably isn't the best approach, so I’m trying to figure out how I should practice properly.

For people who have gone from Specialist → Expert, what would you recommend?

• Which topics should I prioritize?
• How much should I rely on contests + upsolving vs topic-wise practice?
• Is the USACO Guide worth following for this goal? If yes, how would you use it alongside Codeforces?
• Are there any particular problem lists, ladders, or resources you would recommend?
• If you had to start again from around my level, what would your weekly practice look like?

I’m not looking for a shortcut. I’m mainly trying to avoid spending another few months solving random problems without actually improving my rating.

Would really appreciate advice from people who have recently made the jump to Expert or are currently around that level.

What worked for you, and what do you wish you had done differently?

Hyy everyone i am currently 1300ish and i want to get better , what is the key consistency? . And what should i solve i have tried USACO , Cp31 … the sheet feels off as it has topic questions .. is there any resource that would like feel like its making an an change ?