My Story (Complaining)

Let me tell you my story.

I played in chess for 8 years (had around 50 diplomas, and around 2000+ rating), after that I gone to the Math. And after that in Programming

My depression started in 2014, cause the IOI selections:

There were 6 tours, and in one of the tours one problem was just write the Hungarian assignment and in one problem were wrong tests, after the tour ended all submissions were rejudged. And some problems were known… Unfortunately, not for me…

Before the last tour I had +120 advantage over the fifth place. And lost my advantage on the last tour, I have no idea why it happened. I slept badly and was putted on the worst computer. And lost 130 pts on the last tour.

Yes, I didn’t qualified that year and it was the shame. Can someone tell me what is the sense to give Hungarian assignment on the IOI selections for each year by the same guy?

SEERC’2015: one problem had no constraints, when we asked about that the answer was “no comments”, in the end it appeared that problem was NP-hard and random could pass.

ACM WF 16: I started to drunk after the finals(cause I failed on geometry :)) and seems lost all my mind and depersonalization started. Seems if there will be a robotics championship I’ll take the place #0

I started to be angry on each thing in universe, sorry :frowning:

There is nothing to be proud in my competitive programming career and it’s sad. Except 2 wins on LeetCode contest…

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I do not know whether you just want to share your story and gather some support OR you have a question but failed to write.

Whatever it is, please understand that there are people who will give everything to get what you have. As humans, we do not give weight to what gifts we have been given, we always look for what we do not have, and most of the times, it is always something impossible or difficult. Why? Because we like to be ambitious, we want to prove ourselves. It is all okay to be ambitious, its just that we forget to understand that it is OKAY to lose sometimes.

Life is not winning everytime. Life is to win after you lose [famous Baazigar movie line :slight_smile: ] and to help others to bring them at your level.

I see your rating and contribution to codechef and I am sure, you would have contributed to other channels as well. I should say it is an impressive score.

You say - There is nothing to be proud in my competitive programming career and it’s sad, c’mon, you yourself have mentioned top level competitions which is marvelous.

I do not know why you feel sad, is it becuase you were expecting something which you did not get, OR becuase you are not able to progress in your career. Whatever it is, please understand the nature has its own way to make things right.

Sometimes, we need to get our perspective right to understand what we are really looking for.

I will suggest talk to your elders, or friends who you think are successful in lives. Do not spend time in grumbling and repenting.

Help someone to improve programming, or coach students to participate in these top competitions. You would certainly feel useful and charged.

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It dosen’t really matter if you win or loose. You are a good problem writer and solver. An if you feel bad about the competition you lost in and feel like you are still a lot inferior it is really a good thing, that’s how people become masters in their field. You won’t hit the “OK plateau” and keep getting better. Who know you might win at something like GCJ some day?
Keep Coding.

A suggestion- Take a week off competetive programming sites and read the book “Mastery” by robert Grenne.
It might change the way you think.

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We do not know how much pride you took in being a CodeChef admin, but we certainly took a LOT OF PRIDE in YOU being OUR ADMIN. We do not give this responsibility to just anyone out there. One needs to gain our respect, trust and above all one should be very passionate in this field. You checked all the boxes and the community surely benefitted from whatever you have contributed. It is substantial. And the entire CodeChef team here is quite happy and grateful for your contribution. There are not many out there who have achieved what you have.

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Like many tech companies in our college ask for aptitude, english, just 10 technical mcq, and 2 extremely easy programming problem that you don’t have to solve just code as it is, and 80% marks in 10th and 12th standard for software development profile role, and I don’t understand what’s happening in the universe.

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Thanks Anup! Yes, I’m proud that I was an admin. It happened, when my mind almost has gone… :frowning: