A programming contest is a special kind of challenge -- one in which the most important fact is the knowledge with which you come to the contest and the intuition you will have during it. What really counts is not your level of physical fitness, but the state of your mind. To prepare for something like this requires a different approach. You will found out exactly what it takes if you read further.
Preparing For Programming Contests - After the contest and closing thoughts (Page 4 of 4 )
Sometimes you may finish before your time is up. This happens normally only on the easier contests; nevertheless, if this does occur, do not come out of it yet. Make sure that each one of your programs runs with no errors, and invent more test numbers.
Sometimes you may even write a test generator and a solution checker, as the same are tested later on by a commission. Before you finish, make sure you did everything to get the best result.
This is the time for you to evaluate yourself, so when the results are published you can contest it if you feel that you earned more. At some competitions, the evaluations are made in front of the contestant. This is the perfect time for you to observe your mistakes, if you made any, and learn from them.
Now you earn experience. Talk with the other contestants. See how they approached problems that you could not resolve, or if they did it in a more elegant fashion than you did. Find out what mistakes they made, also, so you can learn from them.
Now we are done. We went through all of the stages of a contest. Make sure you join us next week, when I will be presenting for you a couple of methods that let you write code in a short and optimized way. Thank you for your patience in reading this article.
I invite you to state your opinions about this article here on the blog, or feel free to join our friendly and ever-growing community of experts at the Dev Articles forum and post there what you have to say about coding. Until next time I wish you a great week, and do not forget to Live With Passion!
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Programming Contests: Why Bother?
