Getting Started

How Do I Get Started?

• Join the CampusWire forum. If you registered before class started, you should have gotten an invite. If you registered late, or did not get the invite, you need to email the instructor.
• It is recommended that you get these books:
  • Competitive Programming 4. It is a two book set.
  • Guide to Competitive Programming. As of this writing the PDF is free.
• Register a new account on Code Forces. This is particularly important if you happen to have taken this course before. Your username will be visible to other students.
  • Once you are registered, join the class group. This is where your problems will be hosted.

How do I get good at this?

Practice. A lot. But do it efficiently…

• Attend contests as much as you can.
  • Code Forces has two hour long contests usually once or twice a week, for instance.
  • After the contest is over, read the commentary, both for the problems you solved, and the problems you attempted and could not solve.
  • Upsolve the ones you couldn’t do. (I don’t know why they call it upsolving.) This means that you go back to the computer, finish your solution, and submit it until you get it accepted.
• Solve practice problems
  • This has a similar feel, but in this case it’s okay get help. If you are solving UVa problems you can use the UDebug and UHunt sites for extra hints / sample inputs.