It's not uncommon to hear about people being recruited by major companies despite never having attended college. But behind each such success story is a driven individual who self-taught programming and made a name for himself or herself by winning various competitive programming contests or hackathons.
If someone who never attended college was able to get a high-paying job, then you too, regardless of the college you are in or any other factors may realize your dreams too. Simply getting your hands dirty in competitive programming will do.
Here, in this blog, we're discussing programming that is done for competitions. This blog will instruct you on what competitive programming is, why employers seek those skilled in it, its advantages, and how to begin your journey and hone your abilities.
What is Competitive Programming?
Competitive programming is a sort of online coding game. It is essentially a mind sport in which you are given a problem and you must use your programming knowledge to provide an efficient solution while meeting numerous constraints or deadlines.
Things tested in Competitive Programming-
- Logical thinking,
- Analytical thinking,
- Pattern recognition,
- Pressure handling, and
- Your understanding of data structures and algorithms.
How can Competitive Programming Help you in Securing a Job?
A competitive programmer naturally has the ability to solve problems. They are able to divide difficulties into smaller chunks, quickly picture solutions in their minds, and translate those ideas into code with a minimal amount of error. This skill is useful while working on a larger project or software development for the organization since it is essential to break the problem down into manageable pieces and deal with each one independently. Something organizations look for very keenly.
Also, the technical interview questions by many companies including Facebook, Google, and Amazon might include questions from various coding competitions. While you may be proficient at writing code, you might not be familiar with the methods and data structures required to address these kinds of issues. Participating in programming competitions will give you the experience and self-assurance you need to pass one of these challenging interviews.
Benefits of Competitive Programming
However, it is entirely up to you whether or not to begin practicing competitive programming. Nevertheless, the three advantages listed below may persuade you otherwise if you are contemplating abandoning your desire to do so.
1. Improves your Capacity for Problem-Solving:
Competitive programming is similar to puzzle-solving. As you advance, you resolve more challenging issues. It assists you in identifying the most effective, quick, and efficient solution for your program.
Competitive programming aids in both complex programming problem-solving and practical application. You may tackle common issues like finding the quickest ways, handling your finances, organizing your daily routines, and much more with the use of competitive programming.
2. Improves Your Intelligence:
In competitive programming, we typically spend more time brainstorming solutions before beginning the actual coding process. Which helps us to make the best selection in the least amount of time. Doing this more often helps us to acquire the ability to think and respond quickly. It helps us to swiftly, effectively, and efficiently do our everyday responsibilities.
3. Activates the Capacity to Write More Effective and Optimized Code:
Finding a better solution, improving it to pass the time constraint, and submitting the optimized solution are the main goals of competitive programming. Practicing competitive programming brings everything to your fingertips and helps you in framing more effective and optimized code easily.
How to Start Competitive Programming
Are you prepared to begin?
Even if you're new to programming, it will require some preparation, but the experience is enjoyable and is well worthwhile.
1. Select a Programming Language in which you are Comfortable
Learn the sophisticated programming language and library principles that will simplify your life.
Python, Java, and C++ are some of the most popular languages for competitive programming.
Python’s syntax is straightforward and simple, which emphasizes the use of natural language more. It is one of the easiest programming languages to learn and use, making it possible to write and execute scripts quickly compared to other programming languages.
Some people like Java as well, although writing Java code takes longer. But once you have practiced java, this will not be a difficult language for you. Doing competitive programming in java has its own perks, you can go through Java Programs: Know the Best Java Programs for Beginners for a better understanding of the language.
Python and Java are both slower than C++. The STL (Standard Template Library) library, which C++ provides, is incredibly strong and simplifies many tasks for competitive programmers. (For instance, predefined sorting and searching functions; vectors, sets, maps, pairs, etc.)
Which language you use for your competitive programming endeavors is entirely up to you. But be smart with your decision as the language with which you start your competitive programming journey will stay with you for the coming years.
2. Data Structure and Algorithms
Once you have mastered any of the programming languages, understanding data structures are the next essential part. In order to participate in competitive programming, you must select the most effective data structure for a given issue in order to solve it fast and within a certain time limit.
Before beginning to solve problems and competition tasks, we advise you to review the DSA essentials, such as:
- Array,
- Linked List,
- Stack,
- Queue,
- Deque,
- Priority Queue,
- Set,
- Hash Table,
- Searching,
- Sorting, and
- Time and Space Complexity.
Once you are familiar with the fundamentals of all the concepts listed above, move on to topics that are a little bit more complex, like:
- Greedy algorithms,
- Heap,
- Disjoint Set (Union Find),
- Trie,
- Fenwick tree/Binary Indexed Tree,
- AVL Tree,
- Huffman Tree,
- Suffix Tree,
- Sparse Table,
- Union Find/Disjoint: Kruskal, Path Compression,
- Shortest Paths: Dijkstra and Beyond,
- Network Flows,
- Forest,
- Dynamic programming,
- Divide and Conquer, etc.
3. Platforms & Contests
After sufficient practice, you are now prepared to evaluate, validate, or present your competitive programming abilities by participating in a variety of prestigious coding competitions. Undoubtedly, engaging in these coding challenges or competitions as frequently as you can is the best method to develop into a great competitive programmer. These programming challenges are periodically organized on a number of platforms, including
- Codeforces,
- CodeChef,
- HackerRank,
- Coderbyte,
- Codewars,
- Leetcode, etc.
You must compete against multiple other competitive programmers from all over the world on these sites where various code challenges are held on a weekly or monthly basis. You must find the best solution possible to the given problem within the allotted time frame. One of the finest methods to keep in mind is to attempt to tackle any difficulties you were unsuccessful in solving during the challenge once it has ended.
How to Practice your Skills in Competitive Programming?
Staying persistent in the process of learning, practicing, and engaging is one of the most crucial things to keep in mind, yet it is frequently disregarded by most people. Yes, you must understand that mastering competitive programming is a lifelong process that calls for constant practice, learning, and participation. You must push your boundaries and leave your comfort zone.
Below are the four basic steps that you can follow each time you go for competitive programming:
Step 1: Spend some Time Comprehending the Problem
Understanding the issue at hand is the first step in every problem-solving process. This indicates that you are able to properly describe the issue in your own words. If you can't, don't be discouraged; it's all a part of learning. There is a gap in your comprehension when you encounter something that is difficult to explain. Filling the gap is necessary if you want to be able to address the issue.
Step 2: Dissect the Issue
Every problem is composed of several smaller ones. You should tackle the problem on paper or a whiteboard before attempting to solve it with code. By breaking a huge problem into smaller difficulties to solve, the larger problem becomes less intimidating to be approached. Make sure you thoroughly outline the procedures and comprehend what is happening.
Step 3: Execution
The issue has now been resolved on paper. All you need to do is translate your paper-based solution into code and then implement it. Your understanding of your programming language will be useful in this situation. Once you've resolved every issue, put everything together and you'll have the answer.
Step 4: Reflect
There are several ways to approach a subject; nothing argues that my current approach is the best. This indicates that it would be wise to go back on how we approached the problem and consider how you may improve our approach.
Conclusion
The procedures listed above can assist all beginners and students in getting started with competitive programming quickly and effectively. Also, the best thing about learning is that you can start it anytime. If you think it might take you many days or months to be a pro, well then you are not wrong. To be an expert in Competitive programming you may need to put in a lot of time and effort as there are no shortcuts to this. But rest assured that if you start now it might help you in unimaginable ways.
For any further help, or for step-by-step guidance you can take the Data Structures and Algorithm with C++ course by Board Infinity’s expert faculties working at big companies like Paypal, Zomato, etc.