I got interested in USACO about a year ago. Before finding it, I was constantly asking people around me for coding problems, only to find the people I asked annoyed. So, like any sane person, I looked for “stray” problems on the internet. And what did I find? Voila! The Russian Informatic
Olympiad (also known as RusOI). A little more digging directed me to the — *one sec, let me hold my breath* — “United States of America Coding Olympiad” (USACO).
This is where my journey starts.
I quickly created a new account and then, for the heck of it, spent 5 minutes just looking at the home page:
Okay, so what now? I looked at the contest schedule. It was mid-October. I only had about 2 months to prepare for the first contest. I attempted about 1–2 “Bronze” (there are 4 tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) problems every day. The first contest hit me like a bus. For the first 2 hours, everything was going fine. I had finished the first problem and was coding the second. One I had finished, and SUCCESSFULLY submitted the 2nd problem, I looked at the third problem, and my jaw dropped. I had no idea how to solve this problem. My only strategy was brute force, but I didn’t even know how to approach this, this thing. After that, the next 2 hours went by fast. I scored 666. I knew I wouldn’t be promoted. A week later, my notions were confirmed. The score needed to qualify was an 800. How did 6127 people do it then?
Turns out there was no easy way to learn what I had to do. Until the next contest (1 month), I kept grinding Bronze problems. When the next contest came around, I calmy scored an 815.
I still have a long way to go, but I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.
