Competitive Programming: How to Learn from Contests

Ғылым және технология

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

  • @tilakmadichettitheappdeveloper
    @tilakmadichettitheappdeveloper3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @imranif3899

    @imranif3899

    3 жыл бұрын

    A horror mood, indeed.

  • @ojasvsingh5142
    @ojasvsingh51423 жыл бұрын

    Colin is a motivational speaker orz

  • @anupestuff
    @anupestuff3 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
    @harshiit3 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
    @kaladinium73373 жыл бұрын

    Hey, the audio quality is a lot better now.

  • @ColinGalen

    @ColinGalen

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yep, I finally started using a better mic

  • @sukeshseth989
    @sukeshseth9893 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
    @kongzilla28973 жыл бұрын

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

  • @joshua_dlima
    @joshua_dlima2 жыл бұрын

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

  • @legendry
    @legendry3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for such amazing content!

  • @prateekgautam7398
    @prateekgautam73983 жыл бұрын

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

  • @himansumaurya2883

    @himansumaurya2883

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @sashkov1309
    @sashkov13092 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
    @astroflexx829 ай бұрын

    Thanks a lot for this. Really helped me.

  • @user-wq9vi7es5g
    @user-wq9vi7es5g10 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
    @jdragon81843 жыл бұрын

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

  • @khushitshah678

    @khushitshah678

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @nishchayshroff7334

    @nishchayshroff7334

    2 жыл бұрын

    Yes my performance also improved after doing this

  • @abhijitmishra746
    @abhijitmishra7463 жыл бұрын

    This is superb content.

  • @nathanromanelli2845
    @nathanromanelli28453 жыл бұрын

    thank you colin, very cool

  • @nathanromanelli2845

    @nathanromanelli2845

    3 жыл бұрын

    oh wrong account oh god oh fuck

  • @gammastrain5289
    @gammastrain52893 жыл бұрын

    No beauty in peaks without valleys

  • @anupestuff
    @anupestuff3 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?

  • @aaradhyadixit4322
    @aaradhyadixit43223 жыл бұрын

    my favourite youtuber :) orz

  • @vinitdhandharia3478
    @vinitdhandharia34783 жыл бұрын

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

  • @snigdhsinha7235
    @snigdhsinha72353 жыл бұрын

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

  • @ColinGalen

    @ColinGalen

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @prakharranjan8089
    @prakharranjan80893 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

    @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

    @prakharranjan8089

    3 жыл бұрын

    Ok thanks 😀

  • @user-fb7hw1el1c
    @user-fb7hw1el1c2 жыл бұрын

    Thank You so much🥺🥺🥺🥺

  • @farhansaif3044
    @farhansaif30443 жыл бұрын

    Thanks a lot

  • @noob7656
    @noob76563 жыл бұрын

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

  • @napoleon3242
    @napoleon32423 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

    @sankalpmishra284

    Жыл бұрын

    If you know the answer then pls tell me also.

  • @friedchicken1449
    @friedchicken14493 жыл бұрын

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

  • @nafiurrahmankhadem7178
    @nafiurrahmankhadem71783 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?

  • @sanchitkhare7977
    @sanchitkhare79773 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

    @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

  • @muhammadzayed4692
    @muhammadzayed46923 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 .

  • @yashdeore473
    @yashdeore4733 жыл бұрын

    thanks a lot 😄😄😄😄😄😄😀😀😀😀😀😀

  • @adarshgaur6706
    @adarshgaur67063 жыл бұрын

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

  • @saiprashanth3597

    @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

    @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

  • @Selim_Hasan_Raj
    @Selim_Hasan_Raj3 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

    @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.

  • @dirkneuhauser8213
    @dirkneuhauser82133 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?

  • @pavanvenkat9182
    @pavanvenkat91823 жыл бұрын

    How did you add performance column in your contest page?

  • @ColinGalen

    @ColinGalen

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @vedbhatawadekar6842

    @vedbhatawadekar6842

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@ColinGalen what does performance exactly mean though?

  • @Entertainmentexe

    @Entertainmentexe

    6 ай бұрын

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

  • @sobieso
    @sobieso3 жыл бұрын

    yayyy sir colin orz

  • @nirajandata

    @nirajandata

    2 жыл бұрын

    philosophie

  • @shashwatkasliwal4646
    @shashwatkasliwal46463 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

    @replyingtomemeansyourstupi8996

    2 жыл бұрын

    B,C nahi hoga toh D nahi hoga

  • @tushar7305

    @tushar7305

    Жыл бұрын

    Same thing happens with me

  • @notintheobservableuniverse2594

    @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.

  • @muj1003
    @muj10033 жыл бұрын

    i shall go on a game theory crusade on codeforces lol

  • @bharathkalyans
    @bharathkalyans3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @yama-mm8qr
    @yama-mm8qr3 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
    @tdpencil28113 жыл бұрын

    Oddly, I miss the old microphone :(

  • @12six69
    @12six692 жыл бұрын

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

  • @sid1jha432
    @sid1jha4322 жыл бұрын

    How can we improve our speed 😅

  • @harpalsinhjadeja5571
    @harpalsinhjadeja55713 жыл бұрын

    Zero dislikes is the proof

  • @kabboghosh1853
    @kabboghosh18533 жыл бұрын

    wait is over

  • @saiprashanth3597
    @saiprashanth35973 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

    @nishuz

    3 жыл бұрын

    lmao ceil nice

  • @ColinGalen

    @ColinGalen

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @sauravpandey599
    @sauravpandey5993 жыл бұрын

    How did you get this performance column in codeforces.

  • @ColinGalen

    @ColinGalen

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @alvesandre
    @alvesandre5 ай бұрын

    Why you don't do contests anymore?

  • @gabrielwu5787
    @gabrielwu57873 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

    @ColinGalen

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @notvoidz
    @notvoidz3 жыл бұрын

    :)

  • @adityaj21
    @adityaj213 жыл бұрын

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

  • @ksun8993

    @ksun8993

    3 жыл бұрын

    What do you mean by Delta here

  • @notvoidz

    @notvoidz

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @RomanReigns-ds8hs

    @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

    @adityaj21

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @RomanReigns-ds8hs

    @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).

  • @yatnbangad7893
    @yatnbangad78933 жыл бұрын

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

  • @yatnbangad7893

    @yatnbangad7893

    3 жыл бұрын

    I'm an expert at 1636 already!

  • @nishuz
    @nishuz3 жыл бұрын

    OTZ LGM WHEN?

  • @saiprashanth3597

    @saiprashanth3597

    3 жыл бұрын

    Isn't Colin already an LGM? :thinkies:

  • @anshumandas9417

    @anshumandas9417

    3 жыл бұрын

    no he is not he is international grandmaster

  • @saiprashanth3597

    @saiprashanth3597

    3 жыл бұрын

    :thinkies:

  • @nishuz

    @nishuz

    3 жыл бұрын

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

  • @saiprashanth3597

    @saiprashanth3597

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@nishuz true

  • @drsl1549
    @drsl15493 жыл бұрын

    nice video after 695

  • @flanker53
    @flanker532 жыл бұрын

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

  • @adarshshah9141
    @adarshshah91413 жыл бұрын

    orz

  • @janvimyadventures1310
    @janvimyadventures13102 жыл бұрын

    guitar_wale-bhaiya

  • @erfanmohammed7065
    @erfanmohammed70653 жыл бұрын

    :Orz

  • @paulfunigga
    @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.

  • @deankjellberg1798
    @deankjellberg17983 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

  • @mathematics6199
    @mathematics61992 жыл бұрын

    I guess you have atleast 70 percent audience from INDIA

  • @gabbar1867
    @gabbar18673 жыл бұрын

    Biro please teach comptetive programming from basic

  • @gatoradeee
    @gatoradeee3 жыл бұрын

    Y u donut show your face?

  • @harshsamoliya1954
    @harshsamoliya19543 жыл бұрын

    My rating is stucked at 5000 at codeforce please help 😂😂😂

  • @ahmedalmohammed6206
    @ahmedalmohammed62062 жыл бұрын

    you speak very fast i am not an english person so , i hope you speak less fast

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