For this moment, I almost did not compete in the Top Coder. And now I improve this situation.
When I practiced, then for some reason did not participate in the TC, because I had a lot of other contests wich were more similar in style to the school competitions, and I hadn't enough time for training, because I was in school with excellent marks, and it is also time ...
I have a certain number of questions about TC) And a couple of general questions to the top participants.
1) How best to write in TC? Use plug-ins from this page: http://www.topcoder.com/wiki/display/tc/How+to+install+The+Arena+plug-ins?showComments=true#comments ? Or write directly to the default competition window?
I wonder if you write a complete program, it's library, and then the tests for it and test it?
Or rapidly write the library code in standard editor and test it there?
2) Do you use any code-snippets?
This question is not only about top coder but about other competitions where people submit tasks with 3-5 minutes interval? Is it possible to read the task, to understand it, to solve it(even if you see the solve directly), to code and send it in 3 minutes?
3) How to organise your time? Maybe it's better to start from the more "expensive" tasks?
4) Maybe you have some rules or recommendations? Some general advices about competitions and how to prepare to them. And, in particular, the differences between TC and other competitions. These are my questions.
UPD: And how do you, in particular, approach the various competitions and preparing for them?
When I practiced, then for some reason did not participate in the TC, because I had a lot of other contests wich were more similar in style to the school competitions, and I hadn't enough time for training, because I was in school with excellent marks, and it is also time ...
I have a certain number of questions about TC) And a couple of general questions to the top participants.
1) How best to write in TC? Use plug-ins from this page: http://www.topcoder.com/wiki/display/tc/How+to+install+The+Arena+plug-ins?showComments=true#comments ? Or write directly to the default competition window?
I wonder if you write a complete program, it's library, and then the tests for it and test it?
Or rapidly write the library code in standard editor and test it there?
2) Do you use any code-snippets?
This question is not only about top coder but about other competitions where people submit tasks with 3-5 minutes interval? Is it possible to read the task, to understand it, to solve it(even if you see the solve directly), to code and send it in 3 minutes?
3) How to organise your time? Maybe it's better to start from the more "expensive" tasks?
4) Maybe you have some rules or recommendations? Some general advices about competitions and how to prepare to them. And, in particular, the differences between TC and other competitions. These are my questions.
UPD: And how do you, in particular, approach the various competitions and preparing for them?
For me, I use kawigi to generate predefined class/method. I test my programs in default competition window.
2) I don't use any code-snippets. The 250 points is often straight forward to code in 5 mins (the solution is just about 5 lines long).
3) For TC, it's rarely for me to skip a problem (as the next problem should be much harder). I just do 250-500-1000. For each problem, try to solve it as fast as possible, forget about time and the rest. Sometimes I get stuck, I will watch the division summary to estimate the difficulty.
4) Practice is alway the key. It may be time-consuming and you have to give up other activities (it's your choice). There are source codes and editorials on TC, so it's better if you can practice un-solved problems after contest. Other contests have different rules and problems' style so it's good if you try all :D
You can also find some useful links here (mirrors: en and ru).