Competitive Programming: How to Learn from Contests

Рет қаралды 49,631

Күн бұрын

General, yet also specific advice on why rating shouldn't matter, how you can learn from your mistakes in contests, and how you can upsolve effectively.
If you couldn't tell, I'm using the new microphone now :)
Things I said would be in the description:
Codeforces Visualizer: cfviz.netlify.app/virtual-rat...
Original Codeforces blog on rating analysis: codeforces.com/blog/entry/79415
Spreadsheet with full data: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Some timestamps for the sections of the video:
Intro 00:00
Part 1 (value of contests) 00:48
Part 2 (rating, and dealing with rating loss) 04:25
Part 3 (analyzing and learning from failures) 10:06
Part 4 (upsolving effectively) 14:23
Outro 19:57

Пікірлер: 105

@ojasvsingh5142 3 жыл бұрын

Colin is a motivational speaker orz

@tilakmadichettitheappdeveloper 3 жыл бұрын

"Look deep into your soul, into the dark and foggy mist of your memories" - Colin Galen 2021

@imranif3899 3 жыл бұрын

A horror mood, indeed.

@anupestuff 3 жыл бұрын

I have deep rooted fear of string problems. My fear is more than the lack of knowledge. Irrational fear as you say. But you motivate me man. You are touching other people life in positive way. Keep doing such videos.

@harshiit 3 жыл бұрын

The main reason for not growing rating wise is not learning enough from past contests. The sooner you realise this the faster you gain ratings.

@kaladinium7337 3 жыл бұрын

Hey, the audio quality is a lot better now.

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

Yep, I finally started using a better mic

@sukeshseth989 3 жыл бұрын

Hi, thank you for sharing this, I've been sad because of poor performance in recent contests & this video really helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

@kongzilla2897 3 жыл бұрын

This video has a whole different vibe... Motivated , Loved it :)

@joshua_dlima 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the advice man, I'll try my best to follow it

@legendry 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for such amazing content!

@sashkov1309 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, this part about removing failed contests made huge impact one me. I never thought, how do they change rating in long run, but now my eyes opened, and I fully understand, that its all about my skill. Becoming better at contest will "instantly" compensate all of rating loss.

@astroflexx82 10 ай бұрын

Thanks a lot for this. Really helped me.

@prateekgautam7398 3 жыл бұрын

It was weird listening colin clear, I'm used to his previous voice which was bit unique in that microphone.

@himansumaurya2883 3 жыл бұрын

if he will lower the lower freq. it will be great. It distort little in 2x. just a suggestion

@abhijitmishra746 3 жыл бұрын

This is superb content.

@nathanromanelli2845 3 жыл бұрын

thank you colin, very cool

@nathanromanelli2845 3 жыл бұрын

oh wrong account oh god oh fuck

@user-wq9vi7es5g 11 ай бұрын

Thanks for the advice man, I'll try my best to follow it. Hey, the audio quality is a lot better now..

@jdragon8184 3 жыл бұрын

add this , dont write half baked solution , think it through then write , it improved my rank 3 times

@khushitshah678 3 жыл бұрын

So true, don't start coding unless you know exact solution.

@nishchayshroff7334 2 жыл бұрын

Yes my performance also improved after doing this

@anupestuff 3 жыл бұрын

@Colin, how do you suggest to watch any video series on any programming topics such as yours. Should we solve the problem ahead of time and then listen to your solution videos? I guess my main question is, how can a person learn from by solving few problems and for remaining, read the solutions because one can't solve all problems with so many websites with so many problems on each of them. Or how can I critically listen to any video on programming topics?

@snigdhsinha7235 3 жыл бұрын

One small question, how did you get that "performance" column under your "contests" page? (The column beside the "rating change" column)

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

An extension: greasyfork.org/en/scripts/402180-codeforces-performance

@aaradhyadixit4322 3 жыл бұрын

my favourite youtuber :) orz

@vinitdhandharia3478 3 жыл бұрын

Thank You, Bro, I wish I would be able to beat you someday : )

@user-fb7hw1el1c 2 жыл бұрын

Thank You so much🥺🥺🥺🥺

@farhansaif3044 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot

@prakharranjan8089 3 жыл бұрын

I actually never want to miss contests even though I can solve 1-2 problems in Div2 (I have streaks of 7-8 contests back to back). But on some days I can't join on time(maybe 1hr late because of classes) so should I still participate and submit(which will obviously result in -ve delta) or I should not spoil the problems and virtually participation instead?

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

I probably should have mentioned this in the video. If you're forced to miss some part of the contest, then it's usually okay to virtual it later, as long as you're able to take it as seriously as a contest. (My argument about rating representing true skill doesn't apply here, because if you're forced to miss part of a contest, you have an inherent disadvantage vs. other people)

@prakharranjan8089 3 жыл бұрын

Ok thanks 😀

@gammastrain5289 3 жыл бұрын

No beauty in peaks without valleys

@napoleon3242 3 жыл бұрын

Colin, what if I can't solve past 1-2 problems in Educational rounds? What should I do in that case? Should I stop trying or start practicing on the problems list (easy -> hard)?

@sankalpmishra284 Жыл бұрын

If you know the answer then pls tell me also.

@noob7656 3 жыл бұрын

How does the performance column work? What does it indicate?

@yashdeore473 3 жыл бұрын

thanks a lot 😄😄😄😄😄😄😀😀😀😀😀😀

@sanchitkhare7977 3 жыл бұрын

Hey colin can you tell if I should upsolve and practice topics of the current contest and then go take part in next contest or should i take part in every contest?

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

I would say that doing every contest can't hurt, as it can give you a lot of information about where you're lacking in

@friedchicken1449 3 жыл бұрын

Hello galen.Will you make a video of you doing cotext.

@sobieso 3 жыл бұрын

yayyy sir colin orz

@nirajandata 3 жыл бұрын

philosophie

@Selim_Hasan_Raj 3 жыл бұрын

Hey,Colin i did 3 contests and i didn't able to solve any question. i don't know what's wrong with me. what should i do right now?

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

Earlier problems are often heavily based on math and reasoning. I would guess that a strategy would be to spend a lot of time just thinking about problems and pursuing random ideas, even the stupidest ones. If you can rule out all your wrong ideas, then eventually you'll be able to settle for the right ones. Solving other things like math problems may also help with that sort of reasoning.

@muhammadzayed4692 3 жыл бұрын

When i watch your videos i feel like every thing is easy and go to CF solve problems 😂 , i need your advice how to practice on topics and how can i prepare for icpc your topics stream really help me so much thanx for your hard work .

@pavanvenkat9182 3 жыл бұрын

How did you add performance column in your contest page?

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

An extension: greasyfork.org/en/scripts/402180-codeforces-performance

@vedbhatawadekar6842 3 жыл бұрын

@@ColinGalen what does performance exactly mean though?

@Entertainmentexe 6 ай бұрын

@@vedbhatawadekar6842 It shows what rating suits your performance in that particular contest.

@nafiurrahmankhadem7178 3 жыл бұрын

How do you learn from a problem ( or editorial / solution ) where you already knew every trick / knowledge needed to solve it but you still couldn't solve it?

@muj1003 3 жыл бұрын

i shall go on a game theory crusade on codeforces lol

@bharathkalyans 3 жыл бұрын

hey @Colin if you are using java as your cp language,could u please share your template thanks!!

@adarshgaur6706 3 жыл бұрын

Hey colin can u make aa separate video about maths background needed for competetive programming

@saiprashanth3597 3 жыл бұрын

hmm there's a lot I mean the whole ocean of math is required. But yeah Not much is required to actually start your cp journey

@parsabushehri5488 3 жыл бұрын

Combinatorics is computer style math, and you can just add math proofs and geometry, which these two topics are in high school books

@dirkneuhauser8213 3 жыл бұрын

For me, the majority of the cf contests are in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. Are you guys always taking off?

@kabboghosh1853 3 жыл бұрын

wait is over

@yama-mm8qr 3 жыл бұрын

Man, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like participating in contests as a total beginner feels sorta hopeless. You get tunnel-visioned for a single convoluted approach and end up not solving anything because you spent all your time trying to fix trivial errors like runtime exceeding. Also doesn’t help that they don’t even show you the pre test cases that your program failed on.

@tdpencil2811 3 жыл бұрын

Oddly, I miss the old microphone :(

@12six69 2 жыл бұрын

My rating graph is 180degree and I'm stuck with ratings like -10 +7 -2 -9+10.

@harpalsinhjadeja5571 3 жыл бұрын

Zero dislikes is the proof

@shashwatkasliwal4646 3 жыл бұрын

Hi the problem I generally face during div2 rounds is that I get stuck on either B/C and then I just don't feel like skipping a lower problem for a higher problem like D and then I end up not doing either of the problem :(

@replyingtomemeansyourstupi8996 2 жыл бұрын

B,C nahi hoga toh D nahi hoga

@tushar7305 Жыл бұрын

Same thing happens with me

@notintheobservableuniverse2594 7 ай бұрын

@@replyingtomemeansyourstupi8996 That really depends, if the reason you arre stuck is a bug, you might do well on D despite not passing C.

@sid1jha432 2 жыл бұрын

How can we improve our speed 😅

@sauravpandey599 3 жыл бұрын

How did you get this performance column in codeforces.

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

It's an extension on Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey, you can install it at greasyfork.org/en/scripts/402180-codeforces-performance

@saiprashanth3597 3 жыл бұрын

How to learn from contest: When you fst cuz you used real numbers, Realize that you'll never ever use them again for solving problems

@nishuz 3 жыл бұрын

lmao ceil nice

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

Not a bad lesson :P (although you may need them for geo or problems that explicitly require them)

@alvesandre 5 ай бұрын

Why you don't do contests anymore?

@yatnbangad7893 3 жыл бұрын

Dropping in a comment today at rating 1379. Lets see how much better I get by the end of the year :)

@yatnbangad7893 3 жыл бұрын

I'm an expert at 1636 already!

@gabrielwu5787 3 жыл бұрын

In your "optimistic rating change" calculations, you ignored contests on which you would have lost rating, not just the ones on which you did lose rating, right (the two are different because a mild +delta in real life could be a -delta optimistically since you have a higher optimistic rating)? So pretty much you were looking at the subset of contests that maximizes your total current rating?

@ColinGalen 3 жыл бұрын

Yes, I calculated each rating change based on the current optimistic rating and made decisions based on that.

@notvoidz 3 жыл бұрын

@nishuz 3 жыл бұрын

OTZ LGM WHEN?

@saiprashanth3597 3 жыл бұрын

Isn't Colin already an LGM? :thinkies:

@anshumandas9417 3 жыл бұрын

no he is not he is international grandmaster

@saiprashanth3597 3 жыл бұрын

:thinkies:

@nishuz 3 жыл бұрын

@@saiprashanth3597 then we need smearing nutella on face video ASAP!

@saiprashanth3597 3 жыл бұрын

@@nishuz true

@adityaj21 3 жыл бұрын

I had -400 delta and I'm afraid to submit now😞

@ksun8993 3 жыл бұрын

What do you mean by Delta here

@notvoidz 3 жыл бұрын

@@ksun8993 change in rating i.e he got -400 in rating

@RomanReigns-ds8hs 3 жыл бұрын

Just upsolve them , upsolving is a way to get good at contests. (As far as u are learning that's totally fine).

@adityaj21 3 жыл бұрын

@@RomanReigns-ds8hs yeah I upsolve most of them but can't do much in actual contest

@RomanReigns-ds8hs 3 жыл бұрын

My suggestion would be just open all problems in different tabs and don't watch ranklist or no of users solved until the contest ends ( this might be a useful suggestion while giving contest).

@drsl1549 3 жыл бұрын

nice video after 695

@flanker53 3 жыл бұрын

me who is able to solve only 2 problems..... cries in sadness

@deankjellberg1798 3 жыл бұрын

I recently posted in codeforces about getting upset about being bad and how I should kill myself. Your video has helped me a lot man. Thank... really thanks

@adarshshah9141 3 жыл бұрын

orz

@janvimyadventures1310 2 жыл бұрын

guitar_wale-bhaiya

@mathematics6199 2 жыл бұрын

I guess you have atleast 70 percent audience from INDIA

@erfanmohammed7065 3 жыл бұрын

:Orz

@paulfunigga Жыл бұрын

Participating in these contests is the reason why people have imposter syndrome. They don't learn real world technologies, instead they learn to participate in contests, and when they get a job, they realize they don't know anything about technologies and they feel stupid.