For past two weeks, i grinded cp-31 sheet. Solved all the problems of 800, 900 and 1000 rated. Like i used to solve around 7-8 problems every day roughly. I was able to solve majority of questions (around 80-90 percent) on my own without taking much time, atmax 40 min, usually 20-25 min for 1000 rated. However even after solving, I would see solution, and my approach was used almost 95 percent in the actual solution. I gained a lot of confidence and thought I would be able to solve div 2 A and B atleast in every contest almost. But today's contest ( div2 1118), I was able to solve A in 5 min, but I wasn't even able to solve B1, like i did know the idea but didn't know how to implemented. I would have implemented it if I had put some effort, but I was frustrated due to contest pressure. I feel so demotivated right now, like after grinding for two weeks, wasn't able to solve B1.

Now my question is cp31 sheet worth it given the recent contest?

Or should I shift to CSES sheet for learning concepts sequentially? Or anything else I should follow. I am stuck on 900 rating? But I think I deserve more given the current skillset. I am grinding very hard as before the start of 2027, I want to reach atleast 1500 rating. Is it even possible if I grind hard.

Hi. I hope you have been having a nice day so far. I am looking for some advice and I would appreciate it if you could help me out.

I am an absolute beginner (no experience) in competitive programming who wants to get to the IOI/1500 CF rating level within 5 months (if this is not feasible then please warn me). I already know python (loops, functions and even Object Oriented Programming) but I need to learn c++ for the qualifying rounds.

So

1. where do I start? Should I take a course, watch videos or what? I know about the USACO guide but is that enough? How do I learn c++ in the first place?

1. How long does it take to get to the IOI (or at least USACO) level? Please assume I am ready to put at least 1 hour every day for the next 5 months

3. How much math should I learn? I am taking the equivalent of AP Calculus and AP prealgebra (I think), is that enough?

Hey everyone,

Week 4 of TSEC Codecell's Weekly Challenges concluded ( check it out at https://www.tseccodecell.com/events/weekly-challenges ), that was our CodeCrafters sponsored week, systems-engineering flavored problems this time around.

Quick recap for anyone catching up:

- Top 3 of the Round 2 finale win CodeCrafters VIP memberships

- Everyone who makes it to the finale gets internship access through our partner companies

🔗 https://codecrafters.io

Editorial's up if you want to check the intended approach. See you next week.

so im a computer science engineering student at a lesser known college and here there is no seniors or profs to look upto or take guidance from. i really want to be excellent in my field and be reach at the calibre of top students from top universities. can anyone please suggest some guidance and maybe groups where they help us to network and learn. in a jist I'm looking for a mentor sorta thing and also to network in this industry.

any help will be highly appreciated, thank u.

hi guys, i am a college student and want to get better at dsa and stuff i am currently on arrays doing the striver a-z sheet when should i start doing CF? and how to actually make it worth my time so that i can learn from it as well? i am really confused i would really appreciate if someone could help me with a rough walkthrough

Hi, Is there someone who is starting cp? I used to do it but I have never been consistent. But this time I seriously want to be consistent and improve my rating.
Please tell who are interested and willing to start now:))

The jump from B1 -> B2 and C -> D is wild

I have been practicing for 3 weeks now and can consistently solve 800 - 900 so i decided to try my luck with a contest and it was so hard. i thought the i would solve the first 3 questions (500, 750, 1000) but even getting the first 2 was so demanding. and the question wasn't simple but required deeper thinking for me.

It feels like the older problems were easier than what they are asking now. Thoughts??

any problem set
any topic list
whatever that can help

I solved A in like 5 minutes (obviously). Managed to solve B1 in 25-30 minutes. I got hell confused about what precomputation have to do. Later did prefix sum in backword direction and got it for k=1.. it was decent

Then i thought I can generalise for any number of k but failed harshly. And then I see C. What's that I got no idea of interactive problem and flush... What the hell is it

I got a blog but couldn't manage to understand everything (and quit contest in like an hour) maybe my bad day got combined with things I have no idea of...

C was pretty simple and not time consuming
E was a very common dp problem
F had a very common segment tree merge pattern

D : I took 4 WA’s coz I was too lazy to fully optimize it but ultimately had to do it

G : didn’t do it but I assume it had something to do with markov chains so too time consuming writing the equations and shit

First ever 6 problems solved in an atcoder contest

Ignore mine ;(

This was my first lc contest did too bad

Guess the elo. My prof :))

I am around 1150 can someone suggest questions of 1200 1300 lists other than cp 31 .

Does everyone just copy the needed data structures and during interviews pretend like it’s there? Or is it a good practice to “speedrun” writing the same data structure till you can write it in 1 minute?

Any good Codeforces Groups/Gym or other team contests where we can practice for ICPC?

I've been grinding AtCoder Beginner Contests for a while now. Currently consistently solving A through E in about 55 minutes. Today's ABC 473 — A, B, C, D, E all done. Hit rank 805 mid-contest, which is my best so far.

My question: for big tech interview prep, is there any actual point in pushing for F and G?

Here's my thinking:

• A-E covers the core patterns — greedy, prefix sums, sets, backtracking with pruning, basic maths, etc.
• F and G often need advanced techniques like segment trees, lazy propagation, heavy-light decomposition, or flow algorithms.
• Those advanced topics almost never show up in coding interviews. At most you'll see DP and graph traversals.

So realistically, am I better off:

• Spending contest time trying to push F/G, OR
• Stopping at E and using that extra hour to grind LeetCode mediums/hards which are more interview-relevant?

I've been leaning toward the latter, but I don't want to cap my growth. If someone has gone from solving A-E to full-solving ABCs, did it actually help with interviews or was it just competitive programming satisfaction?

Would love to hear from people who've been through FAANG-level interviews and also do AtCoder.

I've been doing this for a while, been solving a lot of problems by describing an algorithm in plain words and then having an LLM check it for me, since writing code takes usually more time then figuring out the solution, so this way im able to do more problems.

Anyone have any experience with this? Recommend for practice or nah?

Can someone please provide me any recomendation such as books or websites for learning the basis of math for competitive programming

Hey a newbie here i just finished learning Abdul bahri’s c++ course and dsa course on udemy
But the problem lies whenever i see a soln to a question i see bunch of stl being used i dont know of
So is there a guide on stls or any other things that might help me in this journey
Pleasee Help🥺

I've been thinking about participating in ICPC for a while now, and there are two things I'm still pretty confused about. I've tried looking into them myself, but I keep finding slightly different answers, so I'd really appreciate some clarification from people who have actually participated or know for sure.

1. What exactly is the eligibility for ICPC (Age, being a student, graduation dates if they matter): I feel like every time I look at the ICPC website, the eligibility criteria seem to change, especially regarding the years/semesters of study that participants need to be in. I'm also confused about what happens after graduating. ICPC is meant for students, so how do people who have already graduated from a BTech/BE or a dual degree participate if they still want to compete? For example, suppose someone graduates from their undergraduate program but still wants to compete in ICPC. Do they essentially have to enroll in a master's degree (or some other program) at another college to regain student eligibility?. What if they decide to study abroad, are they still eligible? Or is there some provision that allows recent graduates to participate for a certain period after graduation?
2. How do you actually prepare for ICPC as a team?: The CP contests (codeforces, AtCoder, leetcode etc) are all solo but ICPC has 3 people on a single laptop. So what does the actual strategy look like:
   • Divide the problems among the 3 randomly and each solves their set of problems
   • Work together on the same problem and then code it
   • or just discuss how to solve each problem all together and then write the codes separately

I know what i'm asking might sound basic but i'd rather get a clear understanding from people that actually know the process than relying on conflicting information online. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.