Competitive Programming: Get, set, go!

Q.What is Competitive Programming?

A. Competitive Programming is an online challenge that allows programmers from across the globe to compete and solve programming tasks and challenges, often within the limited amount of time given.

Q. Why is it useful?

A. Solving a problem and developing a program is one thing, optimising the code is another. In competitive programming tasks, you are given a problem that you have to solve. But, the catch here is that you have limited amount of memory and your program should execute and produce the correct result within the specified amount of time. The answer will NOT be accepted if it does not finish executing within the specified time, even if it produces the correct output.

Q. Who judges the problems?

A. The answer is not a human being, but a computer, a bot! An online judge automatically assesses your program by running it on several test cases and then checks the output with the expected output. So, it should be in the same format as specified in the question. Some websites provide an input file and ask the
user to run the program on that file, produce an output file and then submit it. Remember, running time constraints have no meaning in such competitions.

Q. I am a beginner. Should i start competitive programming?

A. OF COURSE! Competitive programming instils a competitive spirit and allows you to understand how to tackle stress, meet deadlines, think of innovative and out-of-the-box ways to solve the given problems. Most platforms like codechef.com provide ample of practice problems to hone your skills before jumping into bigger challenges. They also have discussion forums, where you can discuss the problems with other fellow coders. The editorial section is also present on these websites, which shares one or more possible solutions to a given problem after the competition is over.

Q. Which Programming languages are supported ?

A. Nearly all popular programming languages are supported like c, c++, python, java etc. are supported, although the list may vary from one problem to problem and from one challenge to another. :)

Whether you are a beginner or an expert, if you are really into coding, then competitive programming is for you!

Ready to test the waters? Here are some of the most famous websites to help you to jump right in:

->CodeChef

->HackerRank

->HackerEarth

 

Any queries or suggestions? Feel free to comment! or contact us  ;)