CF Rating For Hard Silver/Easy Gold

I finished all the problems on USACO Guide, and I am looking for some hard silver/easy gold practice. Because I studied and understand all the silver concepts, but I couldn’t pass the Open contest (mainly because of my problem solving). Therefore, does anyone know what rating problems should I practice for my situation of CF? Also, what other problem sets/sites would benefit my situation?

See https://usaco.guide/usaco-faq for a good starting point :slight_smile:

1 Like

Yeah, I checked it out. What do you think about doing CF to practice USACO? Or should I get started with Gold instead, since there is a lot to learn (and a lot of time until the next contest). Because my plan is to pass silver + gold next season.

What does your practice routine look like right now? What rating CF problems are you comfortable with? Do all types of problems, you never know what problem setters like benq will come up with next year.

1 Like

For now, I just recently completed all the silver Usaco problems from 2015 to now. I am now looking for some harder practice, since I couldn’t pass this open contest. I am wondering I should get started with god altogether. Since I understand the silver concepts, but lack problem solving skills. AND I plan to pass gold next year too.

I do not think there is a relevant scale between CF div.2 problems to USACO problems. However, I believe that a hard silver/basic gold problem might be similar to a CF div.2 C/D problem, that is often rated 1800-2100 but can be solved by rating 1600-1900 participants. If you are able to reach that rating and solve these problems, in my opinion, it is likely you can solve the hard silver and basic gold problems.

LOL. I am in the same boat as you. I was wondering the same thing. Thanks for asking :smiley:. I also have the common goal of passing gold next year. I would recommend doing CF as you said you would tbh. I’m kinda doing the same.

I am not understanding, what’s the difference between participant rating vs problem rating? I should do 1800-2100 rated problems for hard silver right?

Participant rating is derived from how well you do during contests. Problem rating, on the other hand, is the problem difficulty categorized by CodeForces.

Some problem’s rating is unreasonable high/low. It is not a reliable method to judge the relative difficulty of the problem. And each participants may have some parts that they do no master well, which results on missing some each problems.

1 Like