CodeChef.com is also a good programming contest platform. On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 12:20 AM, Leopoldo Taravilse <[email protected]>wrote:
> I don't agree that being a professional programmer for many years can help > you be a better coder at a programming contest. I think that the only way of > being good at programming contests is practicing and participating in > contests. > For those who know TopCoder, last year I solved a lot of problems out of > contests (TopCoder problems, ICPC problems, UVa problems, SPOJ problems, > etc) and trained a lot with my ICPC team and I reached 2020 rating, this > year I didn't practice too much and now I'm below 1700, and I'm sure that > the main reason of that is my training. > If you want to be good at programing contests you must train a lot, it > doesn't matter if you work at a good company coding the whole day or if you > study computer sciences and you finish your degree. It's all about training. > And of course, sometimes it's good to have a good coach to train you, but if > you don't have it it's not a big problem if you have this mailing list where > there are many people (including me) who is willing to help you with your > training. > > And there's something more I want to say for people who are new to > programing contests: There are many sources of problems where you can > practice at, but my favorite one is TopCoder, and I strongly recomend you to > download the TopCoder Arena (http://www.topcoder.com/tc it's the O(n) > that's in the upper left corner), create an account at TopCoder ( > https://www.topcoder.com/reg/ select only the I want to compete on > TopCoder option and then complete all the information, don't worry you can > trust TopCoder your personal information such as adress or T-shirt size) and > log into the Arena with your TopCoder account. Then go to Practice Rooms -> > SRMs and you have a lot of SRMs to choose. Go to all the DIV 2 SRMs you can > and try to solve the easy problem (it's usually 250, and it's sometimes 200 > or 300, but it's always the problem with the lowest number). Try to solve > all the DIV 2 - Easy problems you can (where it says "select one" you select > the problem by choosing it's number) and after you solve it you go to > Practice Options -> Run System Test. That way you'll see if the problem was > correctly solved, if your solution fails you can try it again until you > solve it. > This way you'll start improving your skills in solving problems and one of > that skills is related with speed, because you'll find the solutions faster, > and once you find them you'll code them faster. > > If anyone has troubles registering at TopCoder or trying to use the Arena > please let me know and I'll try to help you. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "google-codejam" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "google-codejam" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en.
