Why and How to Start Competitive Coding ?
Hey guys, I am back again with a new story. This story is actually about a recent Contest, we started at our college named, WeeklyCode. It is a Weekly Coding Competition for our college students.
Today’s story is an answer to general question “Why should we start Competitive Coding ?”.
What is Competitive Coding ?
Competitive coding is the way to solve real world problems using your programming and logical skills. It’s a kind of Mind Sport people play with their Computers. They compete with their peers and with coders around the world, using a common platform(Website) like CodeChef, Hackerrank etc. These platform host coding competitions on daily, weekly or monthly basis. Participants are given a problem statement with some sample input and output. And they have to make program to solve the same problem, but for unknown Input both is Magnitude and Size. Isn’t exciting.
Why Competitive Coding should bother me ?
This question has an obvious answer, “Because it worth it”. Competitive Coding can sharpen your coding skills, It sharps your logical thinking. Due to high competition, you can evaluate yourself among your peers.
And the biggest reason is , that Big Companies love smart peoples. and competitive coding can bring you in eye of such great companies like Google, Facebook, Samsung etc. For example, An 21 yr Indian(Maharashtra) guy named Abullah Khan got placed in Google with an annual package of 1.2 Crore INR. due to his great performance in competitive coding on hackerrank. The most interesting thing was that, This guy was not An IITian or something. Not just Google or Facebook are only one, almost every company conduct a mandatory coding test in their recruitment. And competitive coding can give an edge over your peers because of your enhanced logical and coding skills.
So if you want to get place in decent company with a decent package, You should get started Competitive Coding now.
Okay! I’m Convinced, “How to get start it ?”
- Start with a Programming language, which is most comfortable to you. It may be C, C++, Java or Python. You are not required to be pro in that language but You at least know the basics of that language like Syntax, Data Types, Arrays etc. Some of you may ask What is best programming language to do Competitive programming, According to me It should be C++ because it is blazing fast and its STL (Standard Template Library) makes it useful in competition. Python is also a good option but some times it can make your logic running slowly.
- Learn Basic Data Structure and Algorithms, again You don’t need to be a master, You should know to traverse an array, Some of the basic sorting algorithms (Bubble, Selection and Insertion Sort) etc.
- Be Enthusiastic, anyone who want to start this, should have faith in himself. It may happen that you couldn’t solve a problem after 3 hrs of brain storming. And it is perfectly alright, remember the phase when you started playing your favourite sport, it may be football, cricket or something else. It took time to you to make to good. So Have faith in your self and don’t give up too soon.
- Start with easy problems, You should always try to solve easy problems because they can make you comfortable in this sport and will boost your confidence.
Which platform should I Choose to get started ?
You can start with any one like CodeChef, Hackerrank, Hackerearth etc. I found Hackerrank much user friendly.
Conclusion:
Competitive Coding is sport which you play with your Computer against other coders. It can help you to grab a decent Job and sharpen your problem solving skill.
In Next Story, We will solve our first problem on Hackerrank, So stay updated.
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