progress Stagnated

I started to code from may-june 2017, i solved some beginner’s level practice question and then tried to participate in challenges,but from then to now i always end up solving 1-2 questions in every challenge,even in long challenges also.I just wanted to know where i am lacking,should i practice more problems or anything else??

You can always give forums a look, because this type of questions are answered very elegantly before.

should i practice more problems?

You have just practiced beginner’s level, so I assume you are new to coding. I will suggest that, try to complete that section as fast as you can. It roughly takes ~7 days to solve it fully (except some problems which are wrongly added there) and get grasp on the language of your choice. Then start off with the easy section and progress further.

Q2. "I dont have any idea on how to solve problem X"

Great. You are on the right tracks. Its when you solve a tough problem do you start learning things. Firstly, when you are stuck on a problem (it is taking more than 10-20 tries), check the PRE-REQUSITE section in editorial. If you havent fulfilled the pre-requisite, go and learn the concept, solve easy questions on it to gain confidence, and then return back to the original problem.

In case you HAVE solved the pre-requisites, but are still not able to get it, then there is something wrong. Are you thinking only of 1 approach? Is your thinking a bit too one-sided? How did others fared in that problem?

I wont recommend seeing editorial for solution until/except its worst case. (Worst case means, nobody is able to help at discuss, more than 50 tries but still WA). In worst case, check the editorial, see and appreciate what the setter thought and what you missed. DO NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM RIGHT THEN. Leave it for 2-4 weeks, and when the “memorized stuff” from editorial faded away, re-attempt the Q. This will make sure you are thoroughly learning.

i always end up solving 1-2 questions in every challenge,

When I look back to when i started coding, somehwere in Jan, I see progress, and you will see it too. I still remember, I could BARELY solve cakewalk from JAN long, didnt even bother attempting Q at Feb Long. From MArch tho, I felt some change. I was able to solve 3 problems. Then i strived harder, amde sure to never look back. Got a better score next Long, even if I was just solving Q partially- I did it. Sometimes brute force teaches you stuff. Learnt some stuff from brute force attempts, some things from over 5 pages of WA on a single problem, but rest assured, because I thought of them myself instead of referring to some tutorial, they are really clear to me right now.

Even got the gold medal at hackerrank’s week of code (they give digital gold medal to top 4% users in ranklist- wanted one since i started coding there :smiley: ). Its just perseverance. Slowly, step by step, little by little, you will succeed. And later, if you compare your progress from what you were 3-4 months back, you will see the difference.

For resources- I find hackerearth has really lovely tutorial for advanced concept of graphs and segment trees etc. You can surely give it a shot.

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vijju123 this was of great help

That was quite inspiring @vijju123. Congo for your medal. Although I don’t know how long back you got it. I too wanted to get that and will practice more to achieve it. :slight_smile:

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I got it this July :smiley: The most recent week of code. It was great :smiley:

Thankyou @vijju123. that is quite motivating and inspiring,and congo for the medal,didnt know that such thing also exists.

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Thanks :smiley: :slight_smile: