What to do to Excel in Programming?

Let me make myself clear at the earliest: I don’t require "books and other programming stuff"

All I want is some good advice and motivation on how to maximize the last two years of my engineering to improve my understanding of this scenario of programming. I plan to take programming contests in coming time however this very idea of participating gets dropped because of incapability of converting an algorithm into a desired program although I could very well understand any algorithm (might sound contradictory). I don’t understand what I haven’t followed and the worst part being time shall slowly fade away over these two years as the past two years. If you could add something you think would be useful for me here then please.

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Hi shubhgoyal5,

i may not understand which type of motivation and advice you want but as question on competitive site i can make attempt according to it,

first thing is logical skill means improve your logical thinking , you can develop it by solving beginner and easy practice section of this site by bottom to top. and while doing this sometimes you may face data structure and algorithm related problem which are easy but it will definitely develop your logical skill and now you should start learning advanced DS and algo. but remember one thing you cannot do it in free time you have to get time for it otherwise it will make no sense you will remain what you were initially you will face many problem with logic and understanding basic concept but be confident one day you will be telling someone how did you achieve it :slight_smile: always try to solve problem in your own way and finally you may think that this all depend upon mental capacity or level but never forget about one thing which we all hate i.e PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE because this is what which can improve our mental power because there is nothing like intelligent,god gifted,extraordinary in this world these are those word which are used by failures so that they can give reason to them self why they can’t achieve it. :)

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thank u for your reply and for “there is nothing like intelligent,god gifted,extraordinary in this world these are those word which are used by failures so that they can give reason to them self why they can’t achieve it.” - same here…

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@shubhgoyal5 I can very well understand what you’re trying to say.

Definitely,no one can improve their programming skills by reading a book.It only provides you the basic information.The real world problems are more complex and requires a great deal of practice.

No matter how intelligent you are,but in order to solve these complex questions(competitive programming questions),you need to Practice in order to gain experience.

As you mentioned,you always drop your idea of participating in a contest.

Dude,you won’t know how skillful you are unless you try.Who cares if you’re not getting AC(Correct Submissions),but as the time passes by,you’ll definitely be able to overcome your weakness(not able to convert algorithms into results).

Codechef is a community of programmers.After each contest you can clear your doubts by checking editorials.

If you can’t understand editorials(happens with me),post on discussion forums.
The community is always going to help you.

When the contest is over,you are free to check the codes of others.

But for all this to happen,first you need to try.Practice lots of problems and then experiment by participating in a contest.

Practice and hard work is the key.

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Practice. This one word should suffice

Be an Animal , Don’t think , just learn and implement. Don’t think if you have 4 hours spent on a simple cakewalk problem, just think more and think hard.

Use Feynmann’s Algorithm,

Step - 1:Write down the problem.
Step - 2: THink very hard.
Step - 3 : Write the solution.

I don’t know about the correctness of above approaches but all I can say is I am working in this way.

HI all…
well i wanna ask what are significance of using micro-optimization in C?..like ordering of declaration of variables so as to minimize the usage of space…
[link text][1]

http://www.catb.org/esr/structure-packing/

try to practice algorithm by writing sample programs, which provide strength to your coding skills
and then solve question related to that algorithm for more better understanding
and keep practicing to maintain your flow

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I am a newbie to codechef and programming. Where should I start and where should I ask questions?

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Seems like I have enough karma but can’t add new questions? :expressionless:

Fixed… was a browser problem maybe. :stuck_out_tongue: