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whether you are a high schooler, a university student, or a career developer, this is the perfect time to start with competitive programming.
In general, most hiring programs for software engineers include a technical interview component. These interviews usually consist of coding rounds which require a solid understanding of data structures & algorithms. Since these are the core parts of competitive programming, participating in these competitions can serve as great preparation for technical interviews.
What is Competitive Programming?
While a computer scientist writes evidence to show that his algorithm works, a competitive programmer implements his algorithm and subjects it to a competitive system. Then the algorithm is tested using a set of test cases, and if it passes all, it is accepted.
The main advantage of Competitive Programming is that competition issues require deep thinking. In particular, there are no spoilers in the problem statements. This is actually a serious problem in many algorithmic courses.
As Wikipedia Says, Competitive programming is a mind sport usually held over the Internet or a local network, involving participants trying to program according to provided specifications. Contestants are referred to as sport programmers.
Advantages of Competitive Programming
- Problem Solving Skills
One of the real benefits of competitive coding comes when we start solving problems on our own. During the contest, you will be given some real-world problems that need to be solved in the best possible way in a limited amount of time. This increases our analytical thinking abilities and improves logic building.
- Working as a Team
Most coding competitions happen in groups of 2 to 4 people. Coding alongside different individuals with diverse backgrounds and experience levels can be a great way to learn and gain different perspectives. It also encourages the strengthening of coordination and management skills.
- Face the Coding Interviews
Often in coding interviews, companies will present modified versions of easy and medium level questions from competitive coding. Participating in competitions provides familiarity and confidence in coding interviews to get a leg up on internships and job offers from reputable companies.
- Perfect your Software Practices
Competitive programming helps us to build up logic thinking skills, write clean code, better understand the functions and modules, analyze and interpret several alternatives and features, and finally, bring meaningful insight to software products.
- Get a job at the company of your dreams
Various companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. conduct online coding competitions where they directly hire candidates based on their performance in the competition.
How to get started for Competitive Programming?
- To decide on a suitable programming language
You can do competitive programming in any programming language C/C++, Java, and Python is highly recommended. Learn about all the syntaxes, built-in functions, templates, snippets, and library functions such as STL in C++, Big Integers in Java, etc.
- Select a powerful & beautiful code editor
You will be working to solve many problems. To increase the speed and efficiency of your work, it is recommended that you write your code in a code editor. VS(Visual Studio) Code, Sublime Text 3 &, etc are some of the popular editors where you can use their cool features and practice your craft. Use STL, snippets, and templates whenever you can; it not only saves your code length but also decreases the time to write your code.
- Select a platform to practice coding
We recommended for you
After solving a sufficient amount of problems and feeling more comfortable, jump into the actual game arena. Practice as many problems as you can. When you get stuck on some problems, go check out the contest’s editorials and discussion forums.
- Learn the concepts of data structures and algorithm
Nearly every coding problem will require the use of a specific data structure or algorithm for an optimal solution. Knowing basic data structures and algorithmic techniques before you start is a must. Geeksforgeeks is a great one-stop destination for data structures and algorithm concepts.
- Practice to solve different problems
Repeatedly solving similar problems is not going to benefit you in the long run. It will keep you in the wrong bubble. Instead, start solving sufficiently different problems until you master that concept diligently and then jump to another one. Also, it can sometimes help to try to solve the problem initially by hand with pen and paper.
Problem statement
Always give yourself enough time to read the problem statement, carefully. Don’t be in a hurry, when you are reading the problem because this may result in the wrong interpretation of the problem and as a result of this, you will write the wrong code. Remember, 60% of the problem is already solved by merely understanding the statement carefully.
Important points
Break the whole problem into smaller sub-problems that are easier to handle. So, while reading the problem, make a note of important points that you are going to solve.
Constraints
Before writing the code, you should look for the input-output constraints given in the question. This will help you in deciding the time complexity of your code so that you need not change the code again and again if the code is not in accordance with the constraints.
Write the code and test
After deciding the time complexity, write the code and first test your code for the sample input. If it passes, then submit your code and test for other test cases.
More details on online competitions
Participate in online coding competitions that happen regularly across various websites. This is the best tool to measure your growing skillset, where you currently stand, and in which areas you need more practice. Also, the cherry on top, is that there are also enticing rewards in these competitions for the winners.
As mentioned earlier, various companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. conduct online coding competitions from which they directly hire candidates based on their performance. Some of the famous competitions are:
Other competitions include:
- And other college contests.
There are three keys to success in the coding competition
- Practice
- Patience
- Proceed
There is no expert who can remain an expert without sharing their knowledge. So, keep sharing your knowledge with everyone.