snowysecret's blog

Survey on Competitive Programming
By snowysecret, history, 3 years ago, In English

Hello!

I would like to conduct a survey about competitive programming in general, including when you started, how you practice and more.

There are ten questions, and it should not take more than three minutes to finish it. You can click this link to complete the survey.

Thanks for helping!

Update 1: One of the questions, "How confident are you on being a red coder?" now allows decimals (from 1.0 to 5.0) as responses! Also you can submit more than once now.

Update 2: A new question is added: "Which category do you belong to on Codeforces?" (sorry for not adding it previously)

Update 3: The survey will be accepting responses until Thursday, October 22, 2020 at 00:55 (UTC). Results will be out in a few days.

Update 4: The survey is no longer accepting responses. Thank you CF community for helping me fill in the survey! By the way, there are a total of 793 responses.

Update 5: Results are out!

Q1: What is your current age? (Responses: 793)

0-9 (1.1%)

10-19 (42.2%)

20-29 (54.2%)

30-39 (1.1%)

40-49 (0.4%)

50-59 (0.0%)

60 or above (0.9%)

Q2: At what age did you start CP? (Responses: 793)

Most popular responses are from around 12 to 21 years old, in particular 21.8% of the respondents started at age 18, and 20.4% of the respondents started at age 19.

Q3: Which category do you belong to on Codeforces? (Responses: 661)

Newbie or Pupil: 29.3%

Specialist: 17.5%

Expert: 24.4%

Candidate Master: 11%

Master or above: 11.5%

Grandmaster or above: 6.2%

Q4: Which programming language do you use mainly? (Responses: 793)

Most popular responses are C++, Python and Java. 89.8% of the respondents chose C++, 4% and 3.8% chose Python and Java respectively.

Q5: How much time do you spend on CP per week? (Responses: 793)

<1 hour: 4.3%

1-2 hours: 6.8%

3-5 hours: 18.7%

6-10 hours: 26.7%

11-20 hours: 22.8%

21-30 hours: 10.8%

31-40 hours: 4.7%

More than 40 hours: 5.2%

Q6: How do you learn algorithms or data structures in general? (Responses: 793)

Online judges: 60.9%

Books: 40.2%

Tutorial sites: 59%

Reading editorials of problems: 22.1% (I added this at a later time so the actual percentage may be larger)

Other popular responses: YouTube, CF blogs, College courses, CP algorithms, Mentors, Friends, Codeforces EDU

Q7: Which online judges / contest sites / coding platforms do you use? (Responses: 793)

Codeforces: 97%

AtCoder: 62.5%

CodeChef: 56.9%

LeetCode: 27.4%

HackerRank: 24.1%

HackerEarth: 20.3%

UVa: 12.1%

TopCoder: 6.9%

CodinGame: 3%

Other popular responses: USACO, Local judges, CSES, SPOJ, LightOJ, oj.uz, CS Academy, DMOJ, Timus

Q8: What is your attitude towards getting top 100 in a Codeforces Round? (Responses: 792)

My hard work paid off: 53.4%

Oh I just got lucky: 43.7%

I'm so pro: 6.6%

I always get top 100, so it's nothing special to me: 3.3%

Q9: How confident are you on being a red coder/LGM? (Responses: 793)

Most popular responses: around 3.8 to 5

Least popular responses: 1

Q10: If you are a student, is schoolwork or CP more important? (Responses: 703)

1 — Schoolwork is more important

5 — CP is more important

1: 5%

2: 8.4%

3: 18.3%

4: 31.3%

5: 37%

  • Vote: I like it
  • +86
  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (54)
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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

wow!

what a nice survey!

i hope ur research is successful

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

Wow! What a well-made survey! I will fill in next time too!1.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +127 Vote: I do not like it

i start CP because computer game is no more pleasing to me

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -41 Vote: I do not like it

I can't beliebe a blue coder can make such a cool survey

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

epic survey made!

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

Will survey results statistics be made public later?

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

Hey, I completed your survey. Can you please post the results here so that we all can know.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

May I ask when will the survey end? Like is there a deadline for filling in and will the results be posted after that? I am very interested in the result! :)

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

I started CP, because some stupids promote that it helps you getting Job in FAANG or other.

Now i am mugging up Leetcode and GFG.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

    At least in India it's kinda true.

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      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

      So true. In my very first or second month of college, I was told to start doing CP by seniors without any particular reason. But later on, I came to know that CP questions are asked in company tests and interviews, so that was also a reason. Now, I am in the third year and I want to do CP as I like problem-solving and I want to improve my mathematics as well. Mathematical Thinking and Procedure + Algorithms + DS = Perfect Combination.

      P.S — Can you please suggest to me a way to train myself to become a CM. My current saturated rating is 1620, maybe!

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        3 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Strange. I don't remember my seniors supporting cp so much. Anyway I didn't start cp because of job opportunities :P, it was because I wanted to beat a classmate of mine in programming contests after losing miserably in college-fest programming contest.

        Regarding training, I mainly followed a2oj ladders while I was in expert.

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          3 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

          Were you able to beat your classmate?

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            3 years ago, # ^ |
              Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

            Well , he's nick_301 on cf and niket_301 in cc. I reached 5* first and he reached CM first. Currently, we are both evenly matched I think.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

Do publish results after the survey

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3 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

Wow, great survey! Please publish the results after the survey, I wanna know :P

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Interesting topic! Gl on the survey!

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

Please post the results of the survey on this blog too after it get over.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Nice survey, very well-made! One question, will the results become public, if yes, then when?

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    I can send the results in a few days (by the end of the week).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -9 Vote: I do not like it

i think you should add "How confident are you on being a nutella coder?"

for me i will answer 1.01

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +84 Vote: I do not like it

Why does GeeksForGeeks have its own option in some question where no other "tutorial site" has one?

Also ew, GeeksForGeeks.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    In India GeeksForGeeks is the GOD-Level resource. I can guarantee that each and every Indian engineering student (CS related branches) will use Gfg at least once in his/her college-life.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Maybe because I am not familiar with the others. But if anyone has any suggestions I can include them in separate options too.

    UPD: I changed the option to "Searching tutorial sites (e.g. GeeksForGeeks)". I hope that is more general :D

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

    I know right! A few times but not a lot GeeksForGeeks video simulation is cool(because it simulates how DP is built or a tree traversal etc...). But in a lot of times, it is usually bad and their implementation is bad and more surprisingly, there are articles are are actually wrong. I saw an article before claiming to solve a problem in $$$O(n)$$$ or $$$O(nlog_2(n))$$$ while it is not possible to solve it under $$$O(n^2)$$$ lol.

    GeeksForGeeks in that survey should be replaced with CP algorithms cuz CP algorithms is one of the best!

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +61 Vote: I do not like it

    GreensForGreens

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I think you should allow multiple answers for 'what's your attitude towards getting top 100'? Because I think it's both hard work (obviously) and luck (unless I can do it regularly like maybe in div3 / div4).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +8 Vote: I do not like it

Can we see the survey results

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

In question "what's your attitude towards getting top 100", what about those who never got a rank in top 100?

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Finished.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

For the question "How do you learn algorithms/data structures in general?" there should be a option for, reading editorial of problems XD

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by snowysecret (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

Seriously, only 6.6% answered "I'm so pro"? You guys should have some more self-esteem, smh.

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