I have heard from multiple sources that people switch to C++ after they get to gold/plat. Will switching to C++ benefit doing USACO in higher levels and will that increase the chance of going to camp?
I code interchangeably between Java and C++. I find that Java and C++ can both handle most gold/plat problems, but in my experience I have found that C++ can handle tree problems that almost require recursion better.
The reason that people would switch is because C++ code runs faster. When you get to gold/platinum, sometimes even the extra time allotted to Java programs can not be enough so people switch to C++. So technically there is a benefit but unless you need to switch, I don’t really see a reason. And if it’s too slow for Java, it can also be too slow for C++ because even though C++ runs faster, it has only 2 seconds of runtime compared to Java’s 4. Both languages are capable of producing the same algorithms. At the end of the day, it is most likely a algorithm improvement, not a language switch that matters.