For Sujeet Sawala, an engineering student from Pune, tackling programming sets in front of a screen held as much interest as weaving past pawns and bishops on a chessboard. But it was the drive to learn more each day that fuelled his passion to be a better coder. Sujeet never wanted to start his job hunt but armed with his humble and dedicated approach towards programming, and learning on the whole, today he is placed in Directi through his CCDSAP certification.
But his journey started a long time back, during his college days, where he explored online contests and took to competitive programming like a fish to water. Here is an excerpt from the session we had with Sujeet about his experience with competitive programming.
Get to know me!
1. Tell us about yourself!
Hi. I’m Sujeet. I’m currently studying Computer engineering in my final year at Pune Institute Of Computer Technology, Pune. I am interested in programming and like solving complex problems. I also enjoy playing Chess. I’m an Internationally rated chess player with a FIDE rating of 1725.
2. When did you actively begin competitive programming? What did you like about it?
It was during my 3rd Semester that I explored contests with online judges and also ACM-ICPC. Since then, I gradually and actively started competitive programming. I especially liked the data structures and algorithms part of competitive programming and the challenges they throw. The logical abilities developed by attempting and overcoming those challenges are always helpful.
About CCDSAP
3. What was your motivation behind taking the CCDSAP?
I regularly participated in CodeChef Long Challenges. I was placed first on the college leaderboard. I was particularly interested in testing my skills and knowledge in a program which would also provide me a certification. That was one of the motivators for taking the CCDSAP. I was happy to learn that I scored 1000 out of 1000 in the CCDSAP in the very first attempt!
4. What specific feature did you like most about the CCDSAP? (Is there anything different that isn’t offered in other certifications?)
According to me, CCDSAP is the only program that offers certifications in Data Structures and Algorithms through programming contests. This makes it a unique certification program.
5. How did you prepare for the CCDSAP? (Any tips for beginners?)
I regularly used to practice algorithmic problems on various online judges like CodeChef, Codeforces, Hackerearth, Hackerrank, Lightoj etc. This ensured that my preparation for CCDSAP was thorough.
6. Tell us in brief about your interview process with Directi!
My interview process consisted of three interviews based on Data Structures and Algorithms. After I cleared these rounds, there was a final technical interview round. It was based on the projects done, and computer science related concepts like operating systems, databases, networking, etc.
Feedback
7. How can the overall CCDSAP exam experience be improved?
I felt the level of questions could be upgraded a notch higher so that the CCDSAP could gear up to be even more challenging.
8. Would you recommend the CCDSAP to friends/colleagues? If so, why?
Indeed. It is a good program to test one’s skills and knowledge across a wider community. The certification is a valuable one. Moreover, it helps get an interview with Directi 
Cheers!
The Chef
On the eve of Women’s Day, we had the opportunity to interact with a talented female coder from India, Anushi Maheshwari (anushi), whose coding prowess and unflinching focus is breaking gender boundaries. We all have a different story about how each of us started to code, and this time we bring to you Anushi’s coding journey. As a girl who learned programming skills in school, Anushi tells us of the sheer determination and hardwork that has made her achieve success in this field dominated by ‘hims’.
Tell us something about yourself!
I am a final year student pursuing Electronics Engineering at Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur.
When and how did you develop an interest in coding?
I knew JAVA since 10th grade but because of lack of a personal laptop and an internet connection, it was very late before I started competitive coding.The first challenge I participated seriously was the October Long Challenge 2016 when I was 18 but it was during the previous year’s summer vacation when I had better internet at my disposal that I spent improving myself, actively participating in May and June Long Challenges.
What sparked your interest in the field of competitive programming?
I always had a liking for it. When I first learned programming, I used to think of the best way of doing that and that’s how I went forward. Later I was fascinated with the amazing CodeChef Platform. For me, the best thing about CodeChef is their long challenge and goodies I also like the concept of hacks on Codeforces.
Any obstacles that you faced?
The coding environment is something that hindered my growth because I couldn’t find anyone to help me with the problems I faced initially and the major reason behind this was that there were not many girl coders (and only a few boys were good in CP) in HBTI. Another roadblock was my branch (Electronics Engineering). Till today, I have a tough time juggling between the 75% attendance required in Electronics classes and my self-taught Computer Science subjects. But when so many people tackle such issues, why can’t I? 
How did you overcome these obstacles?
It took me a while to realize that no magic is going to happen to help me understand algorithms. I had only me. I made a habit of not giving up on any topic until I understood it. I repeated read about the topic from different sources, ran that code in debug mode and saw if I made any progress. If not, I turned to messaging some great coders on Codeforces and I can bet you that 2 out of 5 are always there to help you if you ask a genuine doubt (not a problem of running contest).
Your views on the gender imbalance in competitive programming?
There is no doubt in the fact that there are very few women coders (only 3-4) in top 100 but I think CodeChef is doing it’s best in reducing the gender diversity by giving some extra opportunities to women
Your message to other women in the field?
The best way to learn to code is solving problems. But don’t always solve easier ones, try to grasp something new with every problem you practice. For this, I think it’s better to practice those next level problems which you were unable to do in the contest other than randomly selecting by yourself. Also, you can connect to me anytime for problems you face and I assure you of my reply (It could take a day or two if I am busy with other stuff but not more than that).
—
Her story is a simple reflection of the complexities associated with all females trying to come up in the competitive programming world and is truly an example for us all. Team CodeChef appreciates her dedication and perseverance to keep her competitive programming flag flying high amidst all the difficulties she faced and wishes her good luck in all her future endeavours.
Ruchika
Team CodeChef
For Istasis Mishra (Codechef profile, Codeforces profile), a class 12 student from Kolkata, India, competitive programming opened the doors to a world of exciting and unending potential. Istasis first discovered Chef and his contests when he participated in the May Cook-Off 2016. And just yesterday, Istasis propelled himself into the league of coders after a commendable performance in the February Lunchtime 2018, achieving his best ever CodeChef rating in the process!
Here’s what the young boy, who aspires of representing India at the ACM-ICPC World Finals one day, has to share:
It has been a wonderful journey for me; one full of ups and downs ( you can see that in my rating graph) and also very humbling. I have met a lot of new talented people, made numerous new friends, learnt a bunch of new things, paved the way for new opportunities, experienced competition and collaboration and so much more. The list is endless!
It all began when I scored poorly in Computer Science in my half yearly school exams. I didn’t like Computer Science at all. I had no interest in it. I was more into sports. The principal used to teach our class and I had fallen down a lot in her eyes by scoring a mere 52%.
I knew I could not study unless I like it and I started googling stuff to get myself interested. And obviously I googled the most cliched “How to make money by programming?”. I landed on TopCoder where they hold competitions based on design and development and give out cash prizes to the winners. I went to the Algorithms track and saw that the problems were very interesting. I always had a knack for solving problems but there, it was truly enlightening. Yes, I obviously made very trivial mistakes back then. For example, my first submission had prompts like “Please, enter the integer: “, etc. Also, it took me about a month to understand what “test cases” mean and that is why I stuck to TopCoder for a long time even after knowing about CodeChef. Yes, the beginning was rough and intimidating as it is for everyone, but thank god, I didn’t give up.
Now looking back after one and half years of experience, I think it seemed elegant back then and I wanted to explore more. What started out as a search for marks (and money maybe) ended up in me finding my true passion.
The funny part is, I did not even know that I was doing competitive programming and that there are competitions like ICPC or IOI. I just did it as a hobby. I used to solve TopCoder problems all the time. But the great mistake I had done was that I was afraid of taking part in the competitions.
I started participating in competitions only one year after solving the easy problems. On looking back, it was my acquaintance Vatsal Sharma who told me that I am actually doing CP and that there is more to it than I think. I learnt that through Olympiads I could get admission in colleges and enjoy many other perks, and the best thing is that I was already a bit experienced when I got to know about it. At that point in time, I used to do it very casually and that led to me getting a very low rating on Codeforces and CodeChef.
In August 2016, I had my first onsite competition, Procon Junior in IIIT Delhi. It was a great experience, and I was motivated by meeting so many like minded people. I participated in ZCO too and started doing CP seriously from thereon.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it past INOI that year but I took that as a challenge and practiced even more to guarantee myself a place in IOITC in 2018. I am really happy that I could make that happen. I can proudly say that this was the biggest breakthrough for me: cracking INOI 2018. I wouldn’t say I am a very good competitive programmer; in fact I have a long way to go to be “good” and I will still strive to be better.
(P.S Obviously, that 52% increased to 100% in my final exams 
)
Overall, there were always ups (making it to IOITC ’18, getting selected for IPC Camp, high ratings, good ranks, winning Lord of Code, etc.) and downs (low rating, missing out on IOITC ’17, etc.) along the way but what matters is I do not let them affect me and still love solving problems. I do not care if I make it to IOI or not, I am happy to be doing what I am and will always strive to improve myself.
My only tip would be to just practice and enjoy problem solving.
I have explained it elaborately here: https://discuss.codechef.com/questions/104710/an-advice-for-competitive-programming
CP has made me a better problem solver and that is definitely a plus point. I would get good marks without studying much because I was able to solve problems fast. Problem solving also helps solve real life problems. Doing CP and getting good ratings and ranks also earns you recognition.
Above all, it has helped me make my dream come true, to pursue a career in research in Computer Science and that too in one of the best institutes there possibly is in India, Chennai Mathematical Institute.
CodeChef has gone a long way in helping me practice and keeping my morale boosted. It has also provided us with Discuss where we can come together, collaborate and help each other. I have learnt a lot from the problems on the platform as well as the Discuss posts. Initiatives like IPC Camp and ICPC for Schools have also helped me stay motivated to a great extent.
CodeChef has also given my school the opportunity to be a part of the Campus Chapter initiative. This led to the formation of a Tech Club from which I am sure more talented competitive programmers will emerge. I hope I can give back to the community as much I have gained from it.
- – - – -
We wish Istasis all the very best in his endeavours and hope he keeps the competitive programming fire in him burning for a long long time. Are you intrigued by his story? Did you find your calling in CP too?
You too can have your story read by programming enthusiasts across the globe. All you need to do is write to us about your competitive programming journey here: goo.gl/BDNBsT
Rishik Sood is studying in Class 12, Amity International School, Mayur Vihar, New Delhi. When asked, he readily shared his preparation experience for INOI and highlighted some vital tips for those who are starting to prepare for the same.
I started CP very late, around 6 months before INOI. The initial months were of course very scary. I struggled really hard (around a month) to get past the easiest questions . But then I met Udit, and he introduced me to an extremely talented group of programmers and mathematicians.
After joining this group, my journey initially became even hard because these guys were just too good. But soon there came Aulene senpai with his amazing guide to INOI preparation. This small guide introduced me to really good questions and that’s where I started to pick up CP concepts. Initially, to do CP, I would really recommend joining a close group of people who do CP. I was helped a lot by guys like Istasis Mishra, Aulene De, Udit Sanghi, Vatsal Sharma, Rajarshi Basu and others in the “Coders’ Den”.
Anyway, some 1-2 months later came ZCO judgement day. ZCO wasn’t really hard. I’m pretty pretty sure I messed up but getting 100+ was not at all a tough job. Cleared ZCO and nearly ZIO. After this, I realised how the level rises from ZCO to INOI. I had to work harder than before if I had to make it to IOITC. So slowly but surely I started preparing for INOI. My key resources were Codeforces, CodeChef and USACO along with some others like SPOJ. I did these pretty well, and became much better than before in a short span of time. For people reading this, keep doing USACO religiously. I cannot stress enough that they have problems that are gold for learning interesting concepts. I did USACO till the day before INOI.
Soon came INOI judgement day. I was not the most confident person but I was pretty sure I’d make it. So I sat to give INOI. I did the graph question pretty quickly without any issue and then faced a somehow intermediate level DP question. Well, I panicked and wasn’t able to do it even though I pretty much knew the solution 10 minute into the question.
I’d like to finish by giving some final pointers specific to ICO as far as I’ve learnt about it:
Learn Python + CPP/Java. People can argue that CPP is a much more used language but in my opinion when it comes to ZCO, no language is better than Python. Easiest codes can be written quite quickly.
Know your language well and be completely comfortable in it before ZCO.
If you’re learning CPP have the STL at your tips.
If there is any onsite workshop or competition like Procon Jr. do attend it. That greatly reduces the onsite stress.
Don’t panic when giving on-site contests. I suffered quite a lot during INOI.
Read the questions well and solve them on paper first. You needn’t be the first person to do these questions so just take your time and ensure you know what you’re going to code. Include all edge cases on the paper.
Implementing questions in practice is a debatable topic, but I’d say if you are solving 10 questions, you should implement at least 4-5.
Thank you!
Rishik Sood
rishik123
Unlike most participants, SnackDown 2015 was not my first SnackDown. I had also participated in the first edition of SnackDown (SnackDown 2010). I came 32nd (of 74 teams!) in the semifinal round and hence, of course did not qualify for the finals (in that year only top 7 qualified and each team had 3 members). While disappointed, I remember feeling very excited and inspired by the idea of an annual Indian onsite contest. I kept asking Anup for details of the next edition. And hence, was very disappointed when there was no SnackDown the next year or the next to next year…
Finally, SnackDown 2015 was announced. After 5 long years, I was still as excited to be participating in it. I teamed up with Deepa Panwar to form team ancalagon (aside: We were tired of all team names being “good” names. We decided on a darker team name. Ancalagon is the largest of dragons with the villain in The Silmarillion). We scraped through Round 1A even though we managed to solve just one problem. We were severely out of practice and tried to practice a bit before the elimination round. The quality of problems even in these rounds was great (even better than the Cook-Offs).
The elimination round was an eventful one. We solved the first 2 easier problems in less than 30 minutes but struggled with the 3rd problem, which required careful implementation. After trying a lot, we managed to get it accepted. We finished at a distant #82 and were sure would not qualify for the finals (top 25 Indian teams). Luckily, it turned out we just about qualified.
We could not practice much after that as we were quite busy – our final semester of M. Tech at IIT Bombay was approaching its end. In fact, our MTP (The final Thesis presentation) was just a day before the finals. We raced against time to complete the exit formalities at our college. As the contest was in Mumbai – just a few kilometers from our college, we managed to arrive late at night before the finals.
It made us miss the pre contest events. 
The event itself was extremely well organized. I had participated in ICPC World Finals at Ekaterinburg, Russia in 2014. The arrangement and facilities at the SnackDown Venue reminded me of the world finals – it was that good. All teams stayed at the famous Marriot Hotel and all travel facilities were arranged by Directi. The contest environment was awesome too – with large screens showing the scores. I loved how snacks and coffee were being served during the contest.
Coming to the contest itself, since we were out of practice for a long time, we had to decide on some good strategy to even have a chance at being the Indian Champions. In competitive coding, there is always a tradeoff between accuracy and speed. Unless you are tourist or Petr (or in Indian context – unless you are Sumeet Verma or Surya Kiran ), you have to thoroughly test your solution before submitting. I usually go for accuracy over speed.
However, looking at the top teams at the finals, I estimated that we were all roughly the same level and the champion will be decided on the penalty (and not on number of problems solved). Also, SnackDown has ICPC type scoring system. Which meant the time at which one solves the first few problems have a huge impact on the total penalty. Suppose, a team can solve 4 problems taking 15, 20, 30 and 60 minutes of computer time, the total penalty will be 15 + 35 (second problem will be solved at 15 + 20) + 65 + 125 = 240. Now, if the team decides to sacrifice accuracy for speed and solve the first 2 problems 5 minutes earlier each (by perhaps not testing on a lot of cases), the penalty will be: 10 + 25 + 55 + 115 = 205. A saving of 35 minutes of penalty time! Now even if they get a penalty on the easier problem because of lack of testing, the team will still be ahead of their usual penalty by 15 minutes.
That was our plan going into the finals – we will solve the first couple of problems as fast as possible and hope that the tradeoff works in our favor. And it did. 
We solved the first 3 problems in under one hour. For the next problem, I had underestimated the difficulty of one of the problems and kept trying it. Luckily Deepa spotted the correct problem early and we decided to switch to it. Despite incurring a WA on one of the first 3 problems, we were well ahead in terms of penalty. So, we spent some time on the fourth problem and caught quite a few bugs in it before submitting it at about 2 hours into the contest. Our estimate was right – as many as 8 Indian teams solved 4 problems and the winner was decided on penalty. And we finished almost 49 minutes of penalty time ahead of the second placed team.
Overall, it was a very fun and exciting contest and we enjoyed every moment of it. This year it is back and will be bigger than ever as even the global top 25 teams will be invited onsite. I would like to end this with one observation – many people don’t register for such contest as they feel they are “not that good” at competitive coding. My advice is – don’t think that, just participate in as many contests as possible and have fun. Who knows, you may come 32nd in one edition and win in the next .
Regards,
Balajiganpathi
And it’s time to meet the third member of team “stronglyConected.” Meet Akul Sareen. Akul here shares her thoughts on ACM ICPC 2016 – 2017 World finals and how his preparation for it. For any aspiring programmer out there, these are some true words of wisdom.
Team name: stronglyConnected
Team rank: Kolkata regional: #3
Q. How old were you when you started programming and what got you started in programming?
A. I was in Class 12. I came across project Euler and liked the fact that I could come up with some idea and make a computer do the dirty work for me.
Q. What inspired you to get into competitive programming? Were you passionate about it since school or anything special in college?
A. It was fun, and that was enough motivation for me to get started.
Q. How to start preparing for ACM ICPC for those who are new to algorithms and competitive programming? It would be great if you could share your journey from a beginner to a World Finalist today.
A. Pick any online judge, sort the problems by most solved and start practicing. Whenever you come across any problem all it usually takes is one search on the internet to get the answers you are looking for.
Q. Can you throw some light on how did you and your team manage the time and coordinate during the onsite finals? It would be great if you could share some tips for the next year ICPC aspirants.
A. Try and identify the cakewalk + easy problems as quickly as possible and get rid of them. After that the pace of the contest slows down considerably and you can decide how your team wants to manage the keyboard etc. depending on the contest.
Q. What did you do to improve over these years and maintain your target status for all these years with all the competition? What do you think was your most effective method to improve? Any hacks on how to reach where you are in less time ?
A. The most improvement usually happens when you are having too much fun to notice it. So, as long as you are enjoying practicing, carry on.
“It was fun, and that was enough motivation for me to get started” and that is what should be the ultimate motivation. So, kids if you are preparing for any programming competition, or have just embarked on the journey into the programming world, make sure you enjoy the ride. It will be all worthwhile in the end.
That will be it for our series of interviews with the ACM ICPC 2016 – 2017 world finalists. We hope you enjoyed them and we hope they have inspired you enough to pursue your programming interests. In anticipation of covering some more of you in the years to come, we will not put down the pen. If you liked these interviews and would like to hear from some more famous programmers, kindly do let us know and we shall bring them all for you.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
Greetings CodeCheffer! We are back with yet another stronglyConected programmer, Anuj Yadav. A member of team “stronglyConnected” from Birla Institute of Technology & Science – Pilani Campus Anuj takes us through his journey to the ACM ICPC 2016 – 2017 World finals. So, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride.
Q. How old were you when you started programming and what got you started in programming?
A. I started programming in the second semester of my college. I saw my college friends doing questions on SPOJ in their rooms and decided to try it out myself.
Q. How to start preparing for ACM ICPC for those who are new to algorithms and competitive programming? It would be great if you could share your journey from a beginner to a World Finalist today.
A. I think the best resources to start preparing ACM ICPC for a beginner is to start doing questions on CodeChef, Codeforces, Topcoder or Hackerrank starting from the easy problems on those sites. They cover a wide range of topics and have editorials for most of the problems so that you won’t get stuck. You should also do questions on Project Euler to improve your mathematics. Start taking part in CodeChef, CF, TC, HR contests after you have reached a basic level of coding. Make sure you up solve the problems that you could not solve during the contests.
I started by doing 100 SPOJ problems and after that I started doing CodeChef Contests, Codeforces Contests, Topcoder SRMs and some Hackerrank Ad-Infinitums. CodeChef contests are very good for learning new data structures. Nowadays, I only do TC SRMs and CF contests.
Q. Can you throw some light on how did you and your team manage the time and coordinate during the onsite finals? It would be great if you could share some tips for the next year ICPC aspirants.
A. Each problem was read by at least two of the members of the team. If one of the members has a solution for the problem in mind then he explained the problem to the other person who verified the solution. If the solution was agreed upon by the two people then one of the people would code the solution (Usually Pranet or Akul in my team) and the other person would move on to read other problems.
We prepared for the regionals by doing many virtual gym contests on Codeforces. It is important to ensure that you practice team contests in an environment that would be there at the regionals. As there is only one computer available for coding during the regionals you should also ensure that you use only one computer for coding during your team practice.
Q. Do you have any other thoughts as we wrap up?
A. Please do not get into the habit of solving only easy problems rather than the ones that challenge you as that habit is tough to break later.
Good Tips for improving:
We will be back many more wonderful thoughts from these programming geniuses in our future posts. So, keep watching this space. Till then, share this interview among your friends, and family and send in your wishes and questions for them. #GoForGold.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
Greetings Earthlings! Today we have with us Pranet Verma of team “stronglyConnected” from Birla Institute of Technology & Science – Pilani Campus. Let’s hear how his journey to the ACM ICPC 2016 – 2017 World finals was and was he always strongly connected to programming?
Q. How old were you when you started programming and what got you started in programming?
A. We were taught C++ in class 8 and 9 as part of the curriculum, and then again in 11th and 12th as the 5th subject.
Q. What inspired you to get into competitive programming? Were you passionate about it since school or anything special in college?
A. Some random senior during first year interactions suggested I have a look at SPOJ when I told him I liked programming in school. This was my first exposure to competitive programming, and I didn’t even look at any other judge for atleast a year( not a very smart thing to do ).
Q. How to start preparing for ACM ICPC for those who are new to algorithms and competitive programming? It would be great if you could share your journey from a beginner to a World Finalist today.
A. Codeforces and Hackerrank are very good for people who are just getting started with competitive programming. Topcoder has really neat tutorials as well (particularly for graphs). SPOJ and CodeChef are great for practicing multiple questions on topics you have recently learnt, as well as for getting exposed to more advanced algorithms.
Q. Can you throw some light on how did you and your team manage the time and coordinate during the onsite finals? It would be great if you could share some tips for the next year ICPC aspirants.
A. We had had some team practice sessions before the regionals, so our co-ordination was kind of decent. We initially divided the whole problem set among ourselves, to quickly identify the easier questions. Once those were out of the way, we were able to suggest problems to each other based on our strengths.
Q. What did you do to improve over these years and maintain your target status for all these years with all the competition? What do you think was your most effective method to improve? Any hacks on how to reach where you are in less time ?
A. Problem solving with friends and teammates really helps you improve as you learn new ways to approach problems. Oh, and a whiteboard. Get a big whiteboard!
Q. Any hacks on how to reach where you are in less time ?
A. A lot of my practice has been on SPOJ, often doing pretty lame questions just to get that AC. This time could probably have been utilized better learning new topics, or practicing harder questions from the other online judges.
Q. Do you have any other thoughts as we wrap up?
A. Have fun preparing. Otherwise, you’d be doing it wrong.
“Have fun preparing. Otherwise, you’d be doing it wrong” isn’t that wonderful. We hope you get that message and apply it not only in the field of programming, but in any field you are associated with. We will be back many more wonderful thoughts from these programming geniuses in our future posts. So, keep watching this space. Till then, share this interview among your friends, and family and send in your wishes and questions for them. #GoForGold.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
Ola people! Today we have with team “BitBees” from Indian Institute of Technology – Kharagpur with us. Let’s meet Biswajit Paria and hear his journey till the world finals.
Team name: BitBees
Team rank: Amritapuri regional: #2
Q. How old were you when you started programming and what got you started in programming?
A. I was 17 when I started programming. I wanted to learn programming much earlier but not having an internet connection at home or someone to guide me prevented me from learning by myself. I wrote my first c++ program when I took computer science during high school.
Q. What inspired you to get into competitive programming? Were you passionate about it since school or anything special in college?
A. I learnt about the informatics Olympiad during school from my friends at math Olympiad camps. I did some preliminary reading on algorithms and got extremely interested. Algorithms were the one and only reason I was interested in competitive programming. I soon learnt about CodeChef (but heard about Codeforces only in college). To me solving problems on CodeChef and increasing the number of solved problems looked pretty cool. Though I was interested since high school it was too late for me to practice enough at get good at it. Once I was in college I continued to learn by myself initially, till we formed our team. Solving problems together increased our skills and interest.
The most significant factor according to me is my introduction to programming and algorithms during high school. Had it been earlier, it would have been better.
Q. How to start preparing for ACM ICPC for those who are new to algorithms and competitive programming? It would be great if you could share your journey from a beginner to a World Finalist today.
A. Some advice for beginners (which you should take with a pinch of salt):
Find more advanced topics to learn.
Most important piece of advice: Practice problems, take part in contests and read the editorials. Reading the editorials will give you a glimpse of the topics one should know, and most importantly will teach you problem solving.
Try to solve problems on your own first. If unable to solve, then DEFINITELY read the solution and try to understand. If not able to understand perhaps you should try to solve easier problems first.
But do not spend your time trying easier problems only. To progress you must try hard to solve difficult problems. Keep patience and spend time (from hours to days) trying to find a solution.
Don’t lose heart about not being able to solve a problem. Even world finalists cannot solve all problems.
Some advice for non-beginners (which you should take with a pinch of salt again):
Solve lots of problems especially difficult problems. If you cannot solve them on your own, read the editorials and implement them.
Team practice seriously if you want to participate in the ICPC.
Give emphasis to algorithms and discrete Math. The most difficult problems are often related algorithms and discrete Math, not just implementation or data structures.
Practice implementation of complicated algorithms.
Read other’s codes. You will discover simpler ways of doing the same thing.
Write clean readable code (refer to Anurag Anand’s code for a gold standard reference). Helps a lot in debugging during contests, especially for complicated code.
Can you throw some light on how did you and your team manage the time and coordinate during the onsite finals? It would be great if you could share some tips for the next year ICPC aspirants.
At the start of the contest we divide the problem set into three groups and assign a person to each. We try to quickly find the cakewalk problem and assign the most robust (not the fastest) coder to code it and submit. Thereafter we independently work on different problems.
Once someone solves a problem he implements it himself or conveys the solution to someone else for implementation. We make sure that all three members are not working on the same problem. For difficult problems, we often discuss among ourselves. Team practice is very essential for a good coordination.
We take penalties very seriously and at least two people read the code and verify the algorithm before submitting the solution.
Q. What did you do to improve over these years and maintain your target status for all these years with all the competition? What do you think was your most effective method to improve? Any hacks on how to reach where you are in less time ?
A. Once we were experienced enough, 5 hour team practice sessions was the most effective strategy for us. We practiced in the codeforces gym once a week. Though the difficulty and type of the problems in the onsite were not as that of the codeforces gym, our team coordination improved a lot.
The only hack to reach the WF in less time is to be super smart, which is not a privilege enjoyed by everyone.
Q. Do you have any other thoughts as we wrap up?
A. Not being able to qualify for the WF is not the end. If you are really interested in algorithms and programming, pursue it for life. Everyone can make his/her contribution by working towards the greater goal of building a programming conscious India. CodeChef is already doing its part in this, we can take it to the next level by inspiring our next generations.
When preaching to our younger generations, make sure to clarify that programming is not just ‘coding’. A strong hold in algorithms and mathematics alongside good implementation skills make a good programmer.
We hope you enjoyed the interview. We have few more in the pipeline and will be publishing them soon. Till then, share this interview among your friends, and family and send in your wishes and questions for them. #GoForGold.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
A new day, a new team! Team “FacelessMen” from Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur. We have one of the three FacelessMen, Abhilash Kumar, who will be representing IIT Kanpur, at the ACM ICPC World Finals 2016. Let’s enjoy his journey.
Q. How old were you when you started programming and what got you started in programming?
A. I started programming in my freshman year at IIT Kanpur. Prior to that, I had no programming experience as such.
Q. What inspired you to get into competitive programming? Were you passionate about it since school or anything special in college?
A. In my school days, I really liked solving mathematical challenges but had no knowledge of computer programming. When I learnt computer programming during my introductory programming course I found it very fascinating. It felt amazing that now I can code solutions for mathematical challenges and run them on various cases to get the results. Back then, I had no concept of algorithms but I felt pleasure in solving little mathematical challenges and slowly I moved into competitive programming.
Q. How to start preparing for ACM ICPC for those who are new to algorithms and competitive programming? It would be great if you could share your journey from a beginner to a World Finalist today.
A. Ideally one should first learn computer programming, any introductory course would suffice. Then, (s)he should start learning algorithms and data structures. There are many books, online courses, blogs and web materials available. After that (s)he should start participating in online programming competitions on websites like CodeChef, Codeforces and Topcoder. Try solving problems in increasing level of difficulty. For example, first try to solve Codeforces div 2 A problems, and when you feel confident enough that you can solve most of the div 2 A problems then move on to div 2 B problems and so on. Understanding the editorials is most important, irrespective whether you could solve that problem or not. Also, it helps to check out codes of top programmers to learn tricks on how to code faster and elegantly. Anyone can excel in competitive coding if (s)he keeps practicing and remains excited about it.
Q. Can you throw some light on how did you and your team manage the time and coordinate during the onsite finals? It would be great if you could share some tips for the next year ICPC aspirants.
A. I tried participating in as many live contest as possible. I read blogs on topics in which I was uncomfortable. I tried my best to remain motivated for ACMICPC even after failing miserably for two consecutive years. I used to look at code of top coders to learn and understand how they think. In my opinion anyone can do good at competitive programming if (s)he keeps practicing even after failing and there are no shortcuts to it.
We hope you enjoyed the interview. We have few more in the pipeline and will be publishing them soon. Till then, share this interview among your friends, and family and send in your wishes and questions for them. #GoForGold.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
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