Headstart
Coding Club, IIT Guwahati
< WEEK 1 >
*Join the discord server for clearing all your doubts
What is Competitive Programming or CP
You are given a set of problems and you have to solve these problems
in a fixed time
After solving, depending on your rank/percentile you will be awarded
some virtual points.
Why should you do it
Mainly because it’s competitive and programming :
The Competitive part gives you a feel of sports and the Programming
part might help you in your future courses, internships, and
placements.
CONTENT
Prerequisites (Expected Time: 2-3 days
Resources
Website
Competitions
Implementation (Expected Time: 1 day
Math (Expected Time: 0-1 days
AD-HOC (Expected Time: 0-1 days
General Advice
PREREQUISITES (Expected Time: 2-3 days)
For this course, there are no prerequisites as such. But to start CP you will
need a decent level of knowledge of at least one programming language
General Order of Preference:-
C++ > Java > Python > Other
It isn’t that tough to switch between languages if you have a hold of at
least one language
We recommend you start with C++ if it is going to be your first
programming language.
If you already have knowledge of Python, we have linked resources for CP
in python, so you can continue with the course. However, we recommend
to learn C++ along the way as it’s better for more difficult problems and
will help you in your college curriculum as well.
SETTING UP AN IDE (Integrated Development
Environment)
In simple words, an IDE is an environment that you will be using to write
your code, compile it and view the output. A suitable and well-equipped
IDE is very important, and not setting it up in the right way may cause
trouble in the future.
(you may spend days fixing it).
Two of the most popular ones are:
VS Code
a. Windows
b. Mac
2. Sublime Text
Don’t mess up while setting it up otherwise you will easily waste days
fixing it!!
STARTING WITH YOUR FIRST PROGRAMMING
LANGUAGE
What we are going to recommend is the fastest and preferred way to
learn C++ / Python. These are short videos but are more than sufficient.
Resources for C+
Bucky’s Tutorial: Watch lectures 1 to 41 and 71 to 73
CP Course by Luv: 4 to 12 lectures. (For those comfortable with Hindi)
Resources for Pytho
Programming with Mosh: The first three hours would be sufficient
Corey Schafer - STL
Solve the First 10-20 problems from Hackerrank just to get comfortable
with the language you chose.
Note: Do not waste much of your time learning the language ( getting
into tiny details).
TOOLS FOR COMPETITIVE PROGRAMMING
Note: You don’t need to set these up to begin with CP, however, along the
way these tools become really helpful to your journey. You may revisit this
when you get comfortable with CP
VS Code extensions:
To install these extensions, look for the “Extensions” button on the left
sidebar. Then you can search for and install the
Code Runner: With this, you can directly run the code without
having to compile in the terminal . Caution: Sometimes, though
rarely, this extension does not work properly.
Competitive Programming Helper: It automatically reads test
cases from the website which you won’t have to write again and
again. To work with this you also have to install the Competitive
Companion Chrome extension .
2. Sublime Text Packages:
Similar to the cph extension in VS Code, you can find
FastOlympicCoding in Sublime which works with Competitive
Companion .
3. User Code Snippets/Template code:
These are reusable code pieces that can help you avoid re-writing the
same code. You can make them in both VS Code and Sublime Text.
4. Header Files
Including all libraries required can be a tedious task. So we prefer
including <bits/stdc++.h> file instead, which already contains all the
libraries. It is not used in usual C++ codes as it takes a long time to
compile. However, that is not important in CP. It is available from
C++14 and above and it is not directly available for Mac users.
Mac users can refer this video. The folder with include files may not
be the same. To find that, you can make a C++ file, type
#include <iostream> and Ctrl + Click on it to see the file location.
5
. Speeding up I/O
If you are using C++, add the following lines in your main function:
ios::sync_with_stdio(0);
cin.tie(0);
The python equivalent for the same is :
import sys
input = lambda: sys.stdin.readline().rstrip("\r\n")
By adding “ios::sync_with_stdio(0);”, you are essentially telling the C++
streams not to synchronise with the C I/O functions. This can lead to a
speedup, especially when there's a lot of I/O in your program.
Warning: You won’t be able to use C functions like scanf and printf in
your C++ code properly thereafter since we have desynchronized C++
input and output streams with the standard C I/O functions.
In C++, standard input (cin) and standard output (cout) streams are
tied by default. This means that whenever you perform an input
operation using cin, it automatically flushes the output buffer of cout.
By using cin.tie(0);, you break the tie between cin and cout. This
means that input operations (cin) won't automatically flush the
output buffer of cout. This can lead to better performance in
scenarios where you need to optimize I/O operations.
RESOURCES
Handbook (CPH):- You can find 90% of the things you want to learn in
this book, but reading this book completely and then starting to solve
problems is not recommended. Just refer to the book when you come
across a topic that you haven’t heard about before
CSES:- The author of the Handbook has also made a compilation of
300 really good and conceptual problems which covers almost all CP
topics. But it doesn’t contain problems sorted according to difficulty so
you will have to estimate it using solve count
USACO Guide:- This is literally the “one-stop shop”. This website is
generally referred to as USA computing Olympiad aspirants and it has
everything in sorted order based on divisions
CP-Algorithms:- Contains all CP topics but again not in sorted order of
difficulty. So, refer to it only if you are stuck on a topic and couldn’t find
it in the Handboo
OEIS:- Short for The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. You
may look for a specific formula satisfying the initial integer sequence
pattern you devised for a problem.
WEBSITES
Some websites from where you can learn and compete and some
important competitions
Codeforces:- Most popular and widely used platform
Contests are mainly of the following types:- Div 4, Div 3, Div 2, Div 1,
Div 1+2, Educational Rounds, and Global Rounds
We recommend participating in all rounds without worrying about
rating changes. (Experience matters more than ratings)
Do try to solve all the problems whose ratings are <= your rating +
300. If you are not able to solve the problems, refer to their editorial.
If you still don’t understand the solution, discuss it with your friends
or ask your doubts in the competitive-programming-discussion
channel on our Discord
Try not to miss Div 3 contest, they contain good problems touching
upon various important techniques and problem types
Atcoder:- Educational and Weekly contests with quality problems
3 types of contests:- Atcoder Beginner/Regular/Grand contes
Must participate in Atcoder Beginner Contests, as it covers a good
variety of problems
Codechef:
Monthly contests:- Long challenge and Lunch-tim
Weekly contests named starters
It is highly recommended to start giving contests regularly once you have
some basic knowledge about CP.
IMPORTANT YEARLY COMPETITIONS
* We will send you a reminder before all these contests when to participate
Meta HackerCup:- It is a once-a-year contest having various eliminatory
rounds.
ACM ICPC:- It is also held once a year and the Biggest CP contest for
college students. It is known as the Olympics of CP. It is held in a
topological order
Online -> Regionals -> World Final
Advent of Code:- Advent of Code is an annual set of Christmas-themed
computer programming challenges which offers new programming
puzzles each day from December 1 to 25
TCS CodeVita:- TCS (Tata Consulting Services) organises one of the
largest global programming competitions. According to the new format,
there are going to be many rounds in this competition
LIT:- LIT (Lexington Informatics Tournament) is a competitive
programming tournament for contestants of all levels, hosted by
members of the LexMACS club. Participants can participate in teams of
three
Code Gladiators: Code Gladiators is an annual coding competition by
TechGig. The Open Contest is conducted in three rounds: open-round,
semi-finals and finale
Yandex Algorithms: Yandex Cup is a competition organised in various
tracks, including App Development, ML, and CP
USACO Competitions: USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) is an online
competition for individuals that is held four times a year. In each contest,
USACO has the following four divisions such as Bronze, Silver, Gold and
Platinum from beginner to advanced. Each division has it’s own problem
set.
PAST IMPORTANT COMPETITIONS
* These competitions have been discontinued but it is good to know that
they existed :)
Google Contests:- Google used to host a variety of contests which are
obsolete now. You can explore the archives of the same provided below
Google Kickstart:
Suited for beginners and contains a good variety of problems but
some can be irritating too.
b. Google Codejam
Multi level elimination round with increasing difficulty, not very
beginner friendly.
c. Google Hashcode:
Not your everyday CP contest, you have optimization task for which
the optimal answer may be unknown. The more optimized the
solution, the more points you get
TopCoder Open:- TopCoder used to organise various competitions like
Yandex, which included tracks like Design, Data Science, CP etc.
IMPLEMENTATION
(Expected Time: 1 day)
After we have learned a language, we can now get started with actual
problem-solving.
Problem-solving requires understanding the problem statement and
designing an effective algorithm that successfully solves the task at hand.
The efficiency of algorithms is very important in competitive
programming. Usually, it is easy to design an algorithm that solves the
problem slowly, but the real challenge is to invent a fast algorithm. If the
algorithm is too slow, it will get only partial points or no points at all.
Thus comes into the picture the concept of time complexity. By
calculating the time complexity, we can find out whether the algorithm is
fast enough without implementing it.
Here are some resources which will help you understand time
complexity: -
1. CPH (Competitive Programmers’ Handbook) Chapter 2
Do read this chapter thoroughly without skipping to get a complete
understanding of Big O notation etc.
2. Big-O notation in 5 minutes
3. This blog might help you in avoiding Time Limit Exceeded error
Some more aspects of a language become handy while doing CP
problems. One such aspect, which we usually ignore when learning the
language is that of range of numbers.
In Python3, the int type stores large enough numbers, so you don’t have
to worry about the value which will be stored in the variable.
In C++, int is a data type that takes up 32 bit of space and can store
integers ranging from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647. However, the
answers in the problems very often go over that range and give wrong
output. This is called integer overflow. Hence, we can use long long data
type over int in such cases. You can read more about it here.
Also Read : Difference between float and double
Following are some challenging problems based mainly on
implementation:
Increasing Array (Solution
Permutations (Solution
Number Spiral (Solution
Chloe and the sequence (Solution
Viki and Squares (Solution
Rudolph and Christmas Tree (Solution
Masha and two friends (Solution)
*Try to attempt a question for a minimum of 30 minutes before checking
the solution.
*We have attached the codes with solutions. If you still have any doubts
feel free to ask us in the discord channel.
*In general, the solutions to the problems can be found in the Editorial/
Tutorial section on websites like Codeforces, Atcoder etc. For CSES, most
of the solutions can be found on google.
MATHS
(Expected Time: 0-1 days)
There are several questions in CP, which can be solved only by
observations and logical reasoning skills. No algorithm is needed as such
to solve these kinds of problems. Such questions test the intuitive/
mathematical skills of the programmer, and not his/her coding skills.
Try to solve these given problems without using any known algorithms:-
Hard Calculatio
Who's Opposit
Comm
Fraction Floor Sum
Additional Questions for practice
Histogram Uglines
Cat Cycl
Recent Action
Fibonaccharsis
AD-HOC PROBLEMS
(Expected Time: 0-1 days)
Ad-hoc problems are those whose algorithms do not fall into standard
categories with well-studied solutions. There are no general techniques to
solve them. They are intuition-based problems, and you may understand
better by solving these:
Teleportatio
Funny Permutatio
Three Door
Sleepy Cow Herding
Additional Questions for Practice
Exchang
MIN-MEX Cu
Sleepy Cow Sortin
Difference of GCDs
General Advice
Try to write readable codes. Readability makes the thinking process
clearer and faster.
Try to visualize a pseudo code to grasp the flow of code before
directly jumping into implementation. No point of an early submission
if it does not get accepted
Always try to solve that one problem you could not do in contest, after
the contest ends. Consistent upsolving contributes significantly in
improving CP skills
If you turn to reading editorial, read hints/partial solution and give it a
try again. Implementing solutions on your own guarantees that you
properly understood the problem and the solution
Maintain healthy competition, Discuss your solutions with your
friends after contest ends. Doing CP with friends not only makes it
more exciting and fun but also helps in discovering different ways to
approach a problem.
You will definitely have contests where you underperform and your
rating drops. Brush that negative feeling off as quick as possible. You
always have the next contest waiting for you :
Submission of every participant is visible. Follow people who write
neat codes, sometimes if the editorial solution is tough to understand,
you can try to make sense out of their code. Some of them are :
tourist jiangly ecnerwala errichto yangster67
Sneak Peek
Excited for the next week? So are we! Expect a lot of new thrilling topics
and handful of challenges waiting to be conquered.
You will be introduced to STL, Sorting and many more topics which are
present in one form or other in almost all questions.
Solve plenty of problems in the mean time and cheers for coming this far!
See you next week!
