A newbie Can anyone help me ?

general
#1

[Alright this might seem Stupid to all the Geeks out here ! But yes I am all confused ]

I recently joined Codechef… could anyone suggest me how to enhance my skill ( I am not that much into competitive programming but yes i want to go for the practice sets ) … The thing is as i perceive the problems they seem to get a solution to me ( not actually but a little ) but i am not at all clear of how to start from the “EASY” section i.e is it advisable to start right from the 1st problem itself or the problems in this section are formulated based on their Difficulty level …
If Yes do tell me the intial problem/problems which i should take !!

Thanks A lot !

29 Likes
#2

Hi @abhieonweb, welcome on CodeChef :wink:

My opinion is, that entering easy section and sorting problems by number of “Successful Submission” descending (click on link in table header) is the best place to start. It simply means that those problems are the easiest one. I’m not a newbie (I participated in more than 100 contests on TopCoder), but I’m using this approach in long contest and short contest here on CodeChef too :wink:

I believe, that if you solve first 10 problems, probably you will solve at least one in CodeChef long contest.

I believe that these 4 problems are most important - you will learm a lot about CodeChef environment

  • TEST, according to its name, it’s not a real problem, you just have to try to submit really easy problem
  • INTEST, this problem shows you, that in real life enornmous is something else (1TB big disk is almost standard today), but to read 2.5MB in 1 second can be a problem for some languages (Java, python and also C++ if you use cin/cout)
  • TSORT, it tests you if you know how to use sorting in your language, typically it can be done in O(n\log(n)) time, if try to implement your own it will cost some effort, on the other hand it’s not good idea to implement such well known algorithms, use one your language supports
  • finnaly FCTRL2, that shows you, that in some problems you need numbers bigger than you normally use (int, long long, long double, …)
  • ATM is really trivial one, but a lot of coders had problem with that one - it is the second one ordered by “Successful Submission”, but “Accuracy” is actually 23.31%, in top 20 there is just one with lower accuracy FCTRL2.

Later when you have some skills, you don’t need to solve problems one by one, read few and try those you like the most :wink: Later when you will try some contest (I really recomment long contest, there are 10 days for 10 problems, but maybe you will solve 1 or 2 in your first contest, you have 5 days for each and typically there are some super easy), than read tutorial and try to solve at least 3 or 4 with tutorial help.

87 Likes
#3

In easy problems start with problem at the bottom of list they are comparatively easy and if you have ever code before you will easily submit them then gradually follow towards top.

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#4

http://discuss.codechef.com/questions/48809/note-for-beginners

Take a look at this link. Hope it helps you. :slight_smile:

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#5

my advise: google CS106A stanford and watch the lectures

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#6

i am beginner to code chef i don’t want challeng problems.i will solve easy problems first.

3 Likes
#7

i am also new to the this part…,now only i study the c language basic so pls help me to what kind of problem to solve initial stage???

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#8

i am new to code chef… so how should i submit my code ??? plz answer

1 Like
#9

Just go on to problem page and there should be a submit button on top right corner. Open it and select your code language and submit it. You can alternatively upload your code file and then submit. I would suggest to use codechef IDE, you can write your code there, test it and submit it there itself. All at one place.

4 Likes
#10

Hi guys , I’m Yasaswini and I’m new to code chef .I wanna start my programming right from the basics…could anyone plzz help me out guys…I feel like I’m running out time.

1 Like
#11

I think the best place to enhance your skill go through ladder of “a2oj.com” which will contain the codeforces problem with varying difficulty first go through ladder A means codeforces problem A then move forward to problem B , problem C and as much as you can It will improve your coding ability simultaneously learn at least one algorithm daily for learning algorithm go through career cup or more easily go through “geeksforgeeks.org”

1 Like
#12

I will add some points which will help you in becoming good programmer. Do Tough problems. Tough problems actually help you in learning new concepts and getting good programming practices. But before going to tough problems you should have the confidence that you can tackle a decent level of question. For that, do easy problems by sorting out to get the ones with highest successful submissions. Get familiar with the codechef environment. Get many successful submissions. Once you are comfortable at that level, try participating in long contests. Competition gives you a boost to solve many problems. Many of the competitions are designed so that a newbie can get atleast one problem. It can be hard at first while trying to solve tougher problems. But try all the options you have like checking editorial, checking other’s code(only for practice problems), asking others for a hint if you are not getting the idea.
Good luck and be a better programmer.

3 Likes
#13

nice suggest from @balista, thanks for sharing the step

#14

Hi and hello everyone,
I have joined in this course from now. Can anyone say how to start a program in codechef?
Because I am new to codechef.

1 Like
#15

When you will enter the easy section, sort the problems in order of maximum submission and solving in that order, think that if more people have solved it then it is possible reason that it can be a cakewalk or for starters you can choose them and as you proceed you will gradually upgrade your coding skills and will be able to solve them. Starting with easy is quite beneficial, in my opinion you should solve starting with easy. You can always take help from editorials below and under all submission you can see others solution also and that too with varying languages, you will find start learning new ways to solve the given problem and will land in gaining more knowledge and this is “EXPERIENCE” is called which comes with time.

I hope this will help the newbies and they can always use Codechef form to discuss and i think this community has potential to answer every problem.
Keep coding and learning under the shade of Codechef.

1 Like
#16

SIGSEGV what type of this error

#17

Basically being newbie first of all start from the most submitted problems so that we are aware that most people have checked as u might be seeing in submission list that some codes are correct compare to many submissions. And another thing is that which is must is never give up as it is the need for all of us even I’m also newbie that’s why I’m sharing my views. Thank u

1 Like
#18

Go to the beginner section and click on the successful submission. The questions are now sorted according to their submissions. Start solving those and gradually move to the tougher problems.

1 Like
#19

HEY!! just joined over here thanks for ur advice.

#20

hey @betlista thanks man i am going the way u told !

at the same time can you suggest some "Stuff ( mostly for a beginner) " to hone my skill in programming ? i would be obliged for that too ! actually i am into CS but with little practical exposure

i.e to say i am quite aware of the concepts only in theory (fingers crossed :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: ) but not into the pragmatic part of it .

And hey thanks again :slight_smile:

1 Like