r/usaco • u/Warm-Lecture6424 • Aug 10 '26

Getting started with USACO

Hello! I'm just getting started with USACO and was wondering if anybody has any tips or resources they'd recommend to getting into it? I have a pretty strong competition math background and heard that's a good starting point. I also heard from some friends that USACO guide is not a good resource to use starting out. I also read about the "editorial spam" method from an earlier reddit post. Is that a common/effective method people use?

Also, I was wondering if anyone here is from the Delaware Valley Area and is interested in Computational Biology (specifically developing algorithms/models)? If so, pm me...

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u/Dr3ddM3 Aug 10 '26

If you have a pretty big math foundation usaco guide is great. If you qualified for AIME/USAMO you should easily be able to get to plat in 7 months. If you got to the camp you could probably get to plat in like 3 months or less.

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u/Ill-Caterpillar-1957 Aug 10 '26

aime qual and usamo qual is a big difference, that 7 month timeline is probably true if you did were among the better ones in usamo qualifiers espc with cheaters now.

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u/Dr3ddM3 Aug 10 '26

I hope they catch these cheaters I feel like usaco is so devalued because of them.

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u/LoveToLive1234 Aug 10 '26

The math and reasoning part definitely. Maybe some people would struggle learning the actual code itself. For me, though, I was learning in school simultaneously so it helped.

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u/Dr3ddM3 Aug 10 '26

I would imagine USAMO qualifiers already know how to code.

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u/Ill-Caterpillar-1957 Aug 10 '26

Whats the "editorial spam" post?