Even the self learning is moving to pro. Honestly, the site has gone down the drain now.
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I don’t get why self learning is moving to Pro either. I think this section is rather bad compared to other self-learning sources.
There are no tutorials, most problems have no editorials and a good portion of the problems is without successful submission. The problems are also rather strange in some cases. I remember solving 1 problem that had the wrong tag (I don’t remember which one). And I don’t think these are problems that teach you something well, these are just a mix of random problems sorted by category.
Hi, thank you for the reply. Can I ask what are the other self learning resources that you used?
Yeah this sucks 
2dy i was checking a text editorial, it’s move to pro now.
I basically only ever solved problems. Not even that many cp problems (maybe 1000?), I work as a programmer in real life. So most of my training comes from there.
The cp resources I would advice others to use are these:
-
https://c2-ladders.com/
^mashup list of codeforce problems. Very similar to a20j, but this one contains new problems instead of older ones. Meaning there will be a lot of ad-hoc problems, those teach you the most imo. The problems are split by rating and filtered by importance! iirc someone scraped all codeforce profiles, checked which problems they solved and how much rating they gained in the recent past. With those information that person tried to calculate how valuable it is for your rating to solve a problem and created a list that shows you the best problems to solve. -
Courses - Codeforces
^very hard learning source. As a 2* you may only want to check out the binary search section, which is extremely awesome. (the best source to learn binary search I have found) -
visualising data structures and algorithms through animation - VisuAlgo
^visualization for some algorithms. I usually use this site or try to find a youtube video. Many algorithms need visualization, at least I cannot understand more complex ones without. -
https://cp-algorithms.com/
^best source I can give you. Basically a wiki about core knowledge. Anyone trying to improve in cp should mark this site and regularly read about different approaches here. -
Catalog - Codeforces
^another wiki about core knowledge. I did not use this one, but it probably is interchangeable with the above one.
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Hey! I have recently started competitive programming and am solving problems from Codechef practice. Can you please recommend whether should I follow the CodeChef practice according to my rating (currently solving problems between 1500 - 1600) or should I move to Codeforces C2 ladder? In the contest, I am doing pretty well. In the last contest, I participated in Div 3 and solved the first four questions in 40 minutes. The fifth question was about a rating of more than 2000 so I was unable to solve it. So can you please suggest to me what should I do? If possible can you share your LinkedIn so I can directly connect you.
I don’t have linkedin.
I prefer c2ladders, because it is the best mashup list I know for improving in cp. But I don’t know you and I have no clue how you would most efficiently improve. I can share some opinions about improving that I noted down from red coders, though:
- don’t burn yourself out
- practice in a challenging but fun/motivating way
- value learning essential topics over everything else (those essential to your rating)
- optional topics, like game theory, can be learned or skipped. Only learn it if it is fun for you
- solve random problems around and above your rating
- upsolve previous contests
- try to improve your skill rather than your rating and don’t get discouraged by short-term fluctuations. Skill changes take month to be seen in your rating-graph
- roadmaps don’t work because they are not personalized. But feel free to use them to build your own plan.
- Mix stuff up and make sure you don’t force yourself into doing stuff you hate
- don’t learn useless algorithms. Rather go solve random problems
- you can learn new stuff for around 4 hours a day before you hit a limit. You also don’t want to learn for more than 90 minutes at a time. (Note: solving problems for 5 hours is not equal to learning for 5 hours. Learning is literally sitting down and learning new algorithms/approaches)
In the end, you really have to create your own training plan. Make sure you keep learning all kinds of things. Learn how to solve problems, by solving problems. Learn essential topics by researching them. If you feel uncertain google. If you feel like you are inefficient, go solve random problems. You can’t ever do anything wrong by solving random problems that challenge you.
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I Know Right 