I am low blue(current rating 1629) at Codeforces and many people who are similar level at Codeforces are already 5 stars in Codechef, but I find it difficult to do well in long contests. I tend to give up too quickly and I have bad patience due to heavy participation in short contests(about 60 rated rounds on Codeforces + about 30 virtuals) and quick editorials of Codeforces. Also, on Codeforces I am usually able to upsolve with much lesser effort because I atleast have some idea of how to solve. In Codechef, very different algorithms are asked in same contest and I personally find Codechef problems to be harder(or maybe they are intended to be harder because we have so much time).
I have read somewhere that Codechef problems are mainly about showing preservance and patience. But I have a bad habit of not fighting, I simply run away to do development stuff or to Codeforces if I can’t solve the problem during long contest.
What if I tried all the ideas I have and all of them gave WA?
It happened with me recently, I just gave up, cause I had tried many things and googling wasn’t giving any relevant results to read upon.
What to do in such situations? Or What is generally helpful in situations where you don’t have any ideas or you are just stuck? How to go from having no ideas at all to getting AC especially in long challenges?
Has anyone been in a similar situation and have fixed their habit of running away from tough problems too quickly? Has anyone any ideas on how I can make myself struggle a bit more? personal opinions and personally used tips and tricks are welcome.
1 Like
Has anyone been in a similar situation and have fixed their habit of running away from tough problems too quickly?
Just don’t? Wtf kind of answer are you expecting?
"Just don’t! "
What if I tried all the ideas I have and all of them gave WA?
It happened with me recently, I just gave up, cause I had tried many things and googling wasn’t giving any relevant results to read upon.
What to do in such situations? Or What is generally helpful in situations where you don’t have any ideas or you are just stuck? Are you never stuck? If you are, how to go from having no ideas at all to getting AC especially in long challenges?
Sorry if it sounds like illogical question, you can consider it as more of a psychology and mindset question rather than a logical one.
If you don’t like the sub-question in description, you can answer the main question, what are some important things necessary to do well in long contests than short ones?
In long contests I found it usefull to create more or less lot of own testcases, and version tool. A bit like “real” software development.
With a testsuite you can try out ideas with less efford. And it lets you remind what you did yesterday… and the day before.
2 Likes
Sounds interesting and helpful, Thank you!
Don’t worry. It happens to everyone. Always try very hard. If you fail, then accept the defeat and look at the editorial. Don’t you ever think how’ll you improve like this. Just do what I said and sooner or later, the dots will connect. Have the faith. Dots will connect. Don’t stress so much over it. 
3 Likes
Best reply I could have got for the query, Many thanks!
1 Like