There are a lot of factors that makes a good competidor. As most of people mentioned practicing is the most important one.
I have been competing in programming contests since 2007, and I've just summed up the number of accepted problems I have in online judges and it is more than 600. We could still sum here lot of practice rooms of TC and all problems I solved as a team in ACM training/competing that was submitted with other accounts among others. This is a reasonable amount of training, but you may find for sure a couple hundreds coders with much more. My point is that when we say practicing for programming contests we mean a real big amount of effort! The reward come as a consequence, and to have motivation to do it you really need to *enjoy what you are doing*! Note also that quantity doesn't imply quality. For example, if you only solve the easy problems of the contests and never tries to study the problems you couldn't solve you won't progress. Studying books, articles etc are also very important. Still, besides I'm happy with a couple achievements, I still quite far from competing in GCJ Onsites and that's a reality for many coders. So, which factors other than practicing impacts the results? You may say strong background education, started competing very young in olympiads or even natural talent. But, what's the influence of these skills over practicing? I would say 80% percent is practicing. You may be a genius and it won't be enough if you don't practice a lot. Maybe other people have different opinions. Last, note that this was a qualification round, it's intended to have easier problems but I still agree with you that the speed of some coders are quite impressive. Davi Costa. 2011/5/9 Gustavo Pacianotto Gouveia <[email protected]> > Questions like that you can find on TopCoder, SPOJ, UVA online judge and > many others.... If you want to read a book about algorithms, a good start > point is Introduction to Algorithms, AKA Cormen > --- > grato, > > Gustavo Pacianotto Gouveia > > Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo > <[email protected]> [email protected] > [email protected] > [email protected] > > > > On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 7:00 PM, rahul raghavendra <[email protected]>wrote: > >> hey can anyone suggest any good book that contains such kind of >> questions ........... >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 2:58 AM, Vexorian <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> > I am a decent programmer and when I started out I too was looking for >>> those elusive tips and tricks that the top rated programmers know of. True, >>> there are quite a few "little things" that would separate a good from an >>> awesome programmer but none the less its all about practice. Just like math >>> or sports! >>> >>> Hehe, you mentioned math before sports. >>> >>> >So most of you say that it is only practice that matters the most. Is >>> it? >>> >>> I don't think they said so, but actually that practice does 95% of it. >>> >>> >These top guys not only understand the problem but they also know which >>> algo >>> to use within maybe 10 minutes that is something amazing and amusing. >>> pratice can tlel you what to use. bu what the problem is exactly it >>> takes >>> time atleast some time.. >>> >>> Actually, knowing what solution to use does come from practice. I am >>> not near the top at all but at least problems A and B didn't take me >>> more than 10 minutes to know how to solve, but that was almost mostly >>> because of practice (I compete in things like this around once every >>> 1.5 weeks). >>> >>> >So the question is still open how come some guys are so fast but rest >>> are >>> not.. If the difference was not that much I am sure I wud have never >>> asked >>> this question.. >>> >>> This time the problems were all easy, you should wait to see what >>> happens in say... round 3. I can tell you that there are people who >>> are able to do in 2 hours what I cannot do in 7 days and they are the >>> ones that will go to the final. Nonetheless, whenever any of them is >>> asked regarded why are they so good, they always reply it is practice. >>> In fact, if you could for example consider someone like Petr Mitrichev >>> - he has been practicing with math puzzles since he was 12 years old. >>> >>> >>> On May 8, 2:45 pm, "Sarma Tangirala" <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> > >>> > Sent from my BlackBerry >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > -----Original Message----- >>> > From: vivek dhiman <[email protected]> >>> > >>> > Sender: [email protected] >>> > Date: Mon, 9 May 2011 00:08:12 >>> > To: <[email protected]> >>> > Reply-To: [email protected] >>> > Subject: Re: [gcj] Re: fast and furious >>> > >>> > yeah! tell us how some guys are doing too fast. >>> > >>> > Do they know the patterns cuz of practice a lot or do they have high >>> > intelligence . >>> > Or they know some thing which we don't.. there is got to be something.. >>> > >>> > Regards >>> > Vivek Dhiman >>> > >>> > On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 12:04 AM, ravi shanker < >>> [email protected]>wrote: >>> > >>> > > Hi, >>> > >>> > > Actually there are lot of things but....can somebody share his >>> personal >>> > > exp....how has he prepared...and become the warrior. >>> > >>> > > On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM, vivek dhiman < >>> [email protected]>wrote: >>> > >>> > >> It's not about macros. I have observed that writing code doesn't >>> take even >>> > >> 5 mins once you know what to code. >>> > >>> > >> But these guys are very fast. They figure out the alog in may be 5 >>> mins >>> > >> what algo to use. I mean that is freaking awesome. >>> > >>> > >> ow come they do it. Is it only practice or am I missing something? >>> > >>> > >> All kinds of help will be appreciated. There are lots of rounds to >>> go.. >>> > >>> > >> Regards >>> > >> Vivek Dhiman >>> > >>> > >> -- >>> > >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups >>> > >> "google-codejam" group. >>> > >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> > >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> > >> [email protected]. >>> > >> For more options, visit this group at >>> > >>http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. >>> > >>> > > -- >>> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups >>> > > "google-codejam" group. >>> > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> > > [email protected]. >>> > > For more options, visit this group at >>> > >http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. >>> > >>> > -- >>> > Regards >>> > Vivek Dhiman >>> > >>> > -- >>> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "google-codejam" group. >>> > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> > For more options, visit this group athttp:// >>> groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "google-codejam" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> [email protected]. >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> * >> K.Rahul ) >> >> >> * >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "google-codejam" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "google-codejam" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "google-codejam" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en.
