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Hiasat's blog

By Hiasat, 9 years ago, In English

I am 16 year old , i am coding java since 12 , I never went in problem solving skill or competitions till this year, I heard about codeforces so I decide to give it a try and learnt C++.

I like it alot , enjoying while solving Problems , I solved around 72 problem past 12 day (since register) I am going to go like this for rest of year.

Is it possible to be red by next year If i keep going like this?

Any tips / advice?

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9 years ago, # |
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I think that be red is not just about solve many problems, but the level of difficulty of the problems that you solve.

Solve a lot of easy problems will help you to write code really fast, and that's ok. But to be red you have to solve problems that are a real challenge for you.

This week I_love_Hoang_Yen post this entry that may help you: The 'science' of training in competitive programming

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thank you for tip, I keep go for more harder and more challenging Problems, I will keep it that way

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Last time I tried to change my handle to 'I_love_....', I got NullPointerException :(

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9 years ago, # |
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No

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    I'm going to show you a counter example

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      You have to prove that your counter example didn't do any algorithmic training before codeforces

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
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        I'll show you after i've become red and i didn't have algorithmic training much before i registered at codeforces (10 days at most)

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          8 years ago, # ^ |
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          Huh, well done!

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            8 years ago, # ^ |
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            thanks !!
            i won't talk about something before accomplishing it again : )), i learnt my lesson ! :D (i know what i did wasn't well-mannered at all)

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              8 years ago, # ^ |
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              Can you tell us what was your training strategy ?

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                8 years ago, # ^ |
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                just learning algorithms and solving as much problems as i can
                also focusing on algorithms/type of problems which i am bad at

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
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                  Congratulations :) :)

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
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                  2 years late.

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
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                  No Problem , But He made it in one year as he said :)

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
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                  Thanks... I guess?

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                  3 years ago, # ^ |
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                  I know im posting this after 3 years but thats really bad ass man. I want to make sure one thing, just be honest with me. Are you smart or genius? because red seems impossible to me no matter how much i practice.

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
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        Oh sorry i actually had some algorithmic training but it didnt have much effect the teacher just said some algorithms and we didn't program any of it and we relearnt it after that so we can't call that actual algorithmic training and he said wanted to teach us heap but he taught us binary search trees

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          9 years ago, # ^ |
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          You either are a genius, have a very awesome educational system or have participated in olympiads and stuff like that before, say IMO.

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            9 years ago, # ^ |
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            I am not a genius but i am participating in our contries olympiads (INOI) and we do have an awesome educational system (EDIT) In Tehran

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              9 years ago, # ^ |
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              "and we do have an awesome educational system"

              The awesome system is being just in Tehran and just for rich people.for example I myself don't even have some teacher that teaches me anything.I have to buy books read them myself.This is the real awesomeness of our educational system.the richer you are the easier you do whatever you want.WHATEVER

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                9 years ago, # ^ |
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                I think, if a person wants to achieve great success in any endeavor, he should be a lot of work by yourself. Even if you have a good teacher, and enough money — it is not a guarantee of success. In any case, person will have to work by yourself or with good team.

                Sorry for my bad English. :)

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                9 years ago, # ^ |
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                Of course, if you have a good coach, is likely to become much more strongly and red.

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                  9 years ago, # ^ |
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                  You're right and as you said in your second comment it is a very "great" boost to have a teacher that tells you a lot of needed things AT LEAST you'll go on waaaay easier than lonely working

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              9 years ago, # ^ |
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              Well I guess it's possible with enough dedication and easy-to-access education.

              For example when I first started 3 years ago I was using a dial-up connection, and spent 3 weeks to find the name of the algorithm I'm looking for (bfs) :/

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              9 years ago, # ^ |
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              If I'm not mistaken, you have many Informatic Olympiad classes at your school, theory, coding and algorithm classes. I think they all affect your progress very much (even their topic is not directly related) and what you say is just nonsense.

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                9 years ago, # ^ |
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                It was last year when we were kids and no they didn't have much effect except knowing that we are gonna learn dfs eventually
                and yes this years classes affect us very much

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
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      Sosnooley

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    I am getting trained by guy who have nice experience in ASM , ARAB ASM , If you have any list of algorithms that would help me into my long journey please send it :)

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9 years ago, # |
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I am 27 years old, I am writing in Russian since 5 and in English since 12. I like it, last year I've written about 70 messages to my mom and to my wife and I am going to go like this till rest of my life. Is it possible to be William Shakespeare by next year if I keep going like this? Any tips/advice?

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Much higher, then one famous monkey's chances. :)

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    I see what you did there

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Why messages? Shakespeare used to write letters. Try that, you'll become another Shakespeare in no time.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    But he wants to become red, not tourist :P

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    I'm not sure how it works in your country, but if you write right letters to right places, perhaps you can legally change your name to William Shakespeare. And I guess that if it's possible, it will take less then one year.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    You know that was rude . You just demotivated him. You are senior , you have some responsibilities towards juniors.

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9 years ago, # |
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It really depends on the person and the work he's done, so it's impossible to tell whether you can be red in one year, but not being able to answer your question is not that important because the question you're asking is a wrong one. Color is not important. Important thing is to improve yourself everyday.

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9 years ago, # |
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if you want to continue to code like that, you got to assume that it is true.

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9 years ago, # |
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Simple hint — get pink by end of tenth month.

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9 years ago, # |
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Well, you can simply wait for the next Christmas magic, our site gives a chance of becoming red in every new year. Keep patience! :)

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9 years ago, # |
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no

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9 years ago, # |
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I was old-style red in less then a year after I copy-pasted a+b.

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9 years ago, # |
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No.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Your handle make everything clear for me

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9 years ago, # |
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If your question is whether it is possible to become red after a year in competitive programming, I think the answer is yes. But you would need to have an extraordinary talent and work really hard and efficiently.

If your question is whether it is likely that you will become red by next year given that you train really hard, then the answer is no. There are many coders who compete for years and are not red yet, simply because they are not talented enough or train in a wrong way.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    How to train in the right way ?

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      I think there's no universal right way to train. It depends on many things such as your personality, level of skills, goals, amount of time you are willing to spend, etc.

      Maybe you will find this blog helpful.

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      How to train in the red way? :)

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Baklazan what did you mean by "they are not talented enough" ? I think sheer practice can make a person climb high and the best example is I_love_Tanya_Romanova

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      What exactly makes you think Bohdan is not talented? Yes, he practices a lot but it is obvious he also has quite a lot of talent, particularly in solving problems very quickly.

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      Unfortunately, you can't attain arbitrarily high levels with practice only. Both practice and talent are needed. If you only practice, or only have talent, you can only get to a certain level.

      We can all practice painting for life, but most likely none of us will ever come even close to painting Mona Lisa. It's the same in any other area.

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
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        exactly, the relationship among "skills" , "talent" and "practice" is:

        skills = talent * practice

        on one hand, if you are very talented but you don't practice then your skills is 0 (because A * 0 = 0)

        on the other hand, if you practice a lot but you are not talented at all then your skills is also 0

        also if you are very talented then your practice will quickly make your skills higher

        but if you are not very talented then you need to practice a lot and hardly to have good skills

        if you don't have talent at some field then don't waste your time practicing at it just go and find another activity that you are talented at , and you must find it sooner or later , because I believe that every person is talented at some field in this life.

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          9 years ago, # ^ |
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          Case 1: talent =1 and practice=0x7fffffff(2,147,483,647) therefore Skills=0x7fffffff

          Case2 : talent =10000(say) and practice=200000 therefore Skills=2*10^9

          Congrats,you have just lost sir :)

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            9 years ago, # ^ |
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            person in case2 is 10000 times more talented than person in case1, but person in case1 practiced more than 10000 times than person in case2 so person in case1 deserves to be better.

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              9 years ago, # ^ |
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              Aahh...that's why you are king of Numbers :)

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          7 years ago, # ^ |
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          Nowadays we can teach machines and make them intelligent what do you think about humans ! sorry for you (kingofnumbers)

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9 years ago, # |
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Keep working and know that just perfect practice makes perfect ;-)

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9 years ago, # |
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Don't forget this => "impossible says that I'm possible " !!!

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    When I think of this I say OK,so it's possible that it's impossible for me to get red.hmmm looks so right!!

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9 years ago, # |
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NO

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9 years ago, # |
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tourist first took part of a rated Codeforces round on February 25th 2010. As of October 7th of that same year he reached the rank of Grandmaster, which is red, so it is possible. He became an International Grandmaster (even a higher level of red) on May 22nd 2011. That is about a year and a few more months, so we could argue it is actually possible(?)

Curious fact: no_name_weak_vegetable became red in 3 rated contests.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    But if you see the record of tourist in topcoder, you will find that he took part contest from 2006.06.24. And he didn't become red quickly. The record in Codeforces don't represent all.

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9 years ago, # |
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"I solved around 72 problem past 12 day (since register) I am going to go like this for rest of year." One chupa-chups from me, if you can do this!:D

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    I don't think he has a good chances to reach red in a single year unless he has strong math background (yet I believe that I am more optimistic about it than most of other people and I would say that his chances are much higher than 0), but I believe this guy can keep this rate of activity for rest of the year. Now he already got 220 problems solved in 5 weeks.

    He will run out of cakewalk tasks soon; but let's be honest — there is a huge number of relatively easy problems at Codeforces. Probably it is not the best way of training; it is highly possible that even with some imaginary best way of training, advices from best coach etc. he will not be able to reach red in a single year. But he should definitely improve a lot.

    Come on, Hiasat, do your best, I don't think your goal is unreachable. And I'll be watching how are you doing for sure — at least because of curiosity :)

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9 years ago, # |
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if you know very very very good(then you have a good logic) math maybe it is possible.

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9 years ago, # |
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Pupil 1 month Specialist 1 month expert 2 months Cm 3 months M 5months Im 8 months Gm 13 months If u follow fibonacci series then u can't :P

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9 years ago, # |
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I think it's possible. Some years back I read one of the ICPC interview of 4 different guys. In that one of the guy who was a Russian, when asked how did he train ? He said that he came to knew about ICPC from his friends and wanted to take part in it. So to qualify he trained himself for 2 months, 20 hrs per day, solving 30-40 problems from ICPC archive and finally made it. Note: His other team mates were not very good coders. I believe if not red, he must have atleast become orange with that kind of tough training. He also showed its possible to become/reach red in greater than 3 months, if you want to become one. Another thing by my own experience, solving difficult problems will only help.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    so he just sleeps 4 hours a day, then when does he eat or poop ? -_-

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      Thinking doesn't stop while eating or pooping. and 20hrs is an average which he gave(sometimes awake on stretch for 30hrs, sometimes 16hrs)

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
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        30 hours in a day that's pretty hardcore!

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          9 years ago, # ^ |
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          well I said 30 hrs on a stretch, not in a day :)

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            9 years ago, # ^ |
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            if at one time he did 16 hours practice then he has to eventually fix 4 hours and that's pretty damn hard i think he was lieng he just practiced like 16 hours a day

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              9 years ago, # ^ |
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              maybe, But he surely qualified for icpc because of the fact that he was interviewed by icpc. I tried searching for it on the web, but couldn't find.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    if you didn't heard he was very good at math,that explain all.

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9 years ago, # |
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Congratulations on reaching blue for the first time :)

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Wow, you meant it when you said you're going to watch him for the next year! O_O

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
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    Thank you very much , you just gave me dozen of Motivation, I can't promise about something i cant do but i think i can promise you that i will do my best :D

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
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      I gave up programming some time ago. But after reading this blog (and comments), it gave me a lot of motivation. Now I will try too :). But not in one year of course. Coz I don't have much time for training. Thank you :). I believe you do your best bro ).

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8 years ago, # |
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Maybe, everything depends on you. After requesting you can to do everything. Always be positive :)

I believe, you can.

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8 years ago, # |
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I guess only if you're very smart. And not this new red, the red after the rating evolution is impossible to reach even in 5 years.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    No it's not.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      Well that's good to hear... but I guess you did some algorithmic training before joining Codeforces, right?

      Do you know anyone who started as bad as me and eventually became a grandmaster? Because I feel like there are two kinds of people, those who had their rating increase every contest for 1-2 years until they became red, and those who had been doing contests for almost 1.5 years and are still blue. It's like the second type never becomes red. *sad sigh*

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        8 years ago, # ^ |
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        8 years ago, # ^ |
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        Well, I started doing competitive programming couple of months before registering on Codeforces. Actually, your rating increased for ~600 points in last year, so you made pretty good progress and if you continue training maybe it'll rise for another 600 points in the next year. So don't be sad. If rating has any purpose it is to keep you motivated, not depressed.

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7 years ago, # |
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Congratulations on reaching purple for the first time :)

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7 years ago, # |
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It is possible.
For exampe : FailedSystemTest

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7 years ago, # |
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With Practice, Comes Talent...

You Might have a better headstart than someone else, but hard work beats talent, because talent just gives you a better headstart but hard work is your fuel..

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5 years ago, # |
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Will update you in a year.

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4 years ago, # |
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after five years the guy who post this blog win in the Acm-Acpc contest with his team and got qualified to icpc and become one of the best competetive programmers in arabs world

Acpc is a regional contest for more than 20 country

i learned many thing from the videos he made and posted on youtube

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3 years ago, # |
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Possible. 998kover