Greetings dear Codeforces community,

I always wanted to write a post that reflects my progress in turning purple after starting competitive programming for three years, and also to record such a short moment, so here it is.

I just turned purple after participating in Codeforces Round 963 (Div. 2) by finishing ABC super quickly, meanwhile, six thousand contestants solved them during the contest. I would say 'purpleness' is shaky and I wanted to secure it in the upcoming contests.

Yesterday night, when I was studying a certain dp topic, I was asked by my friend YJ365723 "Do you think problem solving skill in CP is much like sports".

I was intrigued by this analogy, and I always treat Codeforces contests pretty seriously. However, my initial motive for doing CP is to get a taste of computer science. I then realized doing contests is a way to boost my ego.

In my case, I do sport solely because I want good health and to entertain myself, instead of having a super strong bicep or winning medals in the Olympics. I'm too lazy to go to the gym, those goals require so much effort and are too specific for me.

My attitude on CP is very similar if replacing "health" with "problem-solving skill", which is something that benefits me in general. And the "specific goals" are analogies to the Codeforces rating in this case.

There are always people complaining about "the problem-setting of this contest is so bad", "this problem C is way too simple/hard for div2"...

Let's be super straightforward, most of these complaints are saying "This contest isn't allowing me to demonstrate my skills so my rating drops, it's not my fault."

If you deserve your current rating, you will be able to defend it; otherwise, it's likely to drop, but what you could do is improve your problem-solving skills, helping you secure your rating in the future.

I'm turning blue again as I flunked the contest this morning(in my time), does that mean that I don't deserve the purple handle? Probably, I have complaints too. I know my level, probably I cannot reach purple in the next ten rounds, but I know I will reach the rating that reflects my skill and level, for me, it's even better than bluffing with the purple handle.

(But I'm making use of the purple handle for this blog, ha!)

Finally lines of humble advice:

Study for CS. Study algorithms & data structures. Practice problem-solving skills. To some extent, study for CP. Don't study for Codeforces, but of course study on Codeforces.

Best wishes