Stuck in CP

Problems and Contests
#1

Hello everyone !

This question might seems cringe/newbie but I feel like I can’t get any good advice on this so…
I’ve been doing cp for 2 years but I don’t know how to get better anymore.

My main goal is to get to IOI by the end of the year (it’s extremely easy in my country compared to other countries) but I feel like my training is not efficient at all.

I solved almost all recent Usaco Gold problems without struggling that much (usually I spent less than 30mn to get AC), I also practiced some cf 1900+, atcoder edu dp, some cses problems and a very few OI problems. The problem is that I feel like I can’t solve hard problems and that I have two main scenarios while solving a problem:

  1. it’s easy, I figure out the solution really quickly because I solved a lot of problems like this before (I think I have too much standard knowledge compared to my problem solving skills…)

  2. the problem feels impossible to me and I just can’t solve it even if I think for 10 hours (the only problem that I could effectively solve after thinking for a long time is Split from IOI 2019 and I just solved it because I randomly iterated through stupid greedy ideas).

This is especially true in Atcoder beginner contests where I can solve [A,E] or [A, F] quickly but then spend an hour on G without finding any idea…

Most people recommended me to solve past OI problems but usually when I try a problem and keep it in my mind for a few days I can’t solve it so I just give up.

Btw I know all the “problems solving tricks” like think of small cases, reduce some dimensions of the problem to make it easier…

Does anyone have a nice practice recommendation please ?

Here are my cp accounts if anyone is interested

Cf profile: bestial-42-centroids - Codeforces
Atcoder profile: yanndev - AtCoder
OI checklist: oichecklist.pythonanywhere.com/view/eaf19237962f4dbe27436eb83b1af017b6b0eae5

Thanks by advance for your help !

1 Like
#2

Up !

#3

So based on your CF profile, I’d say your skill level is equivalent to the average gold competitor. If I were you, I’d solve 2100+ CF problems and also do as many virtual contests as possible.

#4

Thank you very much for your answer !
Actually I promoted to plat at last contest lmao (IMO the cutoff should have been way higher than 650 because problems weren’t hard enough for 650 cutoff…)

Thanks a lot for the advice ! I’ll try to follow it. By virtual contests are you talking about cf div2 virtuals or OI virtuals (like BOI, CEOI, Usaco plat, JOIsc etc)
Also, how often should I do virtuals ? Is it 50% cf practice 50% virtuals ?
Thanks by advance for your answer :slight_smile:

#5

Congrats :partying_face:.

This

I honestly should be asking you :stuck_out_tongue:. You’re the guy in Platinum :joy:.

#6

Congratulations