This repo contains all the resources a beginner needs to start competitive programming and an intermediate to excel in it. It is a curated blog of all other blogs that I've found informative while going through several posts for the past some time.

• CP - Essentials
• Technique
• Tools
• Speed

Skip to setting-up your working environment on your pc or CP Materials.

1. Competitive Programming environment set up on their local machine.

2. CP Books to keep them on track.

3. Habit of reading blogs.

4. Practice! Practice! Practice!

5. Should NOT have a complaining nature.

The everyday schedule that one follows should be very balanced and should not leave a person exhausted in the end. The most appropriate time of reading is said to be in the morning itself and a practice which involves heavy mental exercise should be done at night.

The following schedule is optimal to be followed by a beginner to make it a second nature. However, it is not mandatory and one can follow a plan in which they feel most comfortable.

• Morning : Read blogs / books / texts.

• Noon : Implement the concepts and solve related problems.

• Evening : Read blogs or watch video tutorials.

• Night : Solve problems based on the concepts learnt.

The following practices should be kept in mind as these are also helpful :

• Implementing the concepts after reading it.

• Reading Editorial even if you have solved the problem.

• Reading and understanding other users' solution and implementing the same.

• Elaborating the concepts on your own and thinking about the different ways any concept can be modified and then implementing the same.

• Helping others in understanding the concepts you have learnt so far: This might seem like a waste of time but solving others' doubts and making someone understand a concept will make your concept crystal clear.

• Having a Good Sleep is always necessary to start the next day with zeal.

• How much time should we spend on a problem ?

  The answer depends from person to person and from problem to problem.

  Solving a problem on your own without taking any help from editorial is always a confidence booster but spending a lot of time on probably something you are not aware of yet is not upto the mark.

  In my opinion, you should never take help of any editorial if the problem is simply an implementation as editorials are useless in this case. The problem should be solved by yourself. Consider the editorial only if you're stuck at it and can't bear it anymore. However, this should not be made into habit.

Side Note: One should take competitive programming as a sport or hobby. If you really want to improve in cp then you should remove all the unnecessary burden of placements, etc from your mind. It will take some time and practice to master cp which can only be achieved when you start to enjoy solving the problems rather than treating them as a task. It is not necessary to extensively keep on solving the problems to improve your skills. Instead you can take a break, relax, and then get to the problem.

Tip for implementation: To write a good and bug-free code in one-go, you should write your code following the same steps as you would if you were teaching a newbie to do something. (Atleast that's how I've managed a good accuracy so far even in contests.) Your speed will tend to increase once it becomes an habit.

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Check out the following tools, these may turn out to be of great use:

• CP Tracker : The current and future cp contests listed from various sites.

• C List : Similar to CP Tracker but it contains them all in a single list.

• StopStalk : A goto for analysing your daily performance and finding problems based on tags.

• Codeforces Visualiser : You can track your progress on codeforces and can see the ratings of problems you have currently solved and a complete package for your codeforces profile.

• Kenkooo Atcoder : A visualisation tool for AtCoder, here you can solve problems from different contests, see its ratings and many more. It is basically a problemset for AtCoder.

• CodeDigger : Solve codeforces problems based on tags and ladders.

• Contest Mania : Past as well as Upcoming contests in a list.

• Lockout bot for discord : You can try this tool for competiting with your friend in a one on one contest simulation on a discord server.

• TLE - Discord Bot : Another Discord bot centred around CP.

• Graph Visualizer : Easily visualize graphs.

• Chrome extensions : There are a variety of extensions available on Chrome as well as Firefox which can be of great use inculcating the start of competitive programming.

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Speed plays a very important role in perfoming well during the live contests.

For improving the speed, AtCoder is a great platform. Try attempting the problems and solving them in alloted time which is:

• 1-2 minute for A & B.
• Approx 5 minutes for C
• Approx 10 - 15 minutes for D & E.

This will greatly boost the confidence and enhance the logic building and typing speed, in general.

Virtual Contests can also help in speed as these are simulation of real contest. You can give virtual contests by :

• Giving a virtual contest on codeforces.
• Creating a mashup on codeforces.
• Using VJudge to create a contest of your own from past problems of different OJs.
• Using Light OJ to simulate the same.

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You can now set-up your working environment on your pc or move directly to the CP Materials.

This repo will keep on updating as new resources are found.

Note : I don't claim any of the works to be mine. I have just curated them all at one place.