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WhatwasAnudeepNekkanti'sCompetitive
Programmingstrategytobecome35thinGlobal
ranking,injust67months?

910WANTANSWERS

HesaidinthisHowdidAnudeepNekkantibecomesogoodatcompetitive
programming?,hegottoknowaboutonlinejudgeinJanandbyAugust,hewas
35thinGlobalranking.Iwanttoknowwhatwashispreparationstrategy?

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CompetitiveCoding
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WhatisPradeepGeorgeMathias'sand
AnudeepNekkanti'sadvicetoa25year
oldworkingguywhowantstobecomea
topcoder...

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Ujjwal

3kupvotesbyPradeepGeorgeMathias,SachinMalhotra,AnweshNayak,(more)

WhatIdid?

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Solvedabout300problemsonSPOJinthisorderSphereOnlineJudge
(SPOJ)

SpecificQuoraUsers
Competitive
Programming

Result?

Computer
Programmers

BecameverygoodwithC++andSTL
GotintroducedtomostCompetitiveprogrammingKEYWORDS(likeDP,
maxflow,sets,hashing,etc)

Computer
Programming

LearnedStandardProblemsandAlgorithms

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Indentingcode
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progressthroughcompetitive
programming?
IfIsolveonlyonequestiondailyon
SPOJ,canIbeatAnudeepNekkantiin
oneyear?
WasAnudeepNekkantia9pointerof
ANITSorthetopperofhisbatch?
Whataresomeachievementsof
AnudeepNekkantiapartfromcompetitive
programming?
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div11000s?
HowdidAnudeepNekkantitacklethe
mathproblemsincompetitive
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AnudeepNekkanti,""keyhatesmethemost..

CodeChef

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AnudeepNekkantisaid,"Ididnothave
anymathorprogrammingbackground,
andthismadeitdifficultforme.So,to
concl...

HowcomeAnudeepNekkanti(agreat
competitiveprogrammerfromindia)isat
ANITS(anunknowncollege)?

EditBiographyMakeAnonymous

Codeforces

Alias

WhichpartofmathematicscanIlearnin
11/2monthsthatwillhelpmein
competitiveprogramming?

UjjwalAyyangar

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RELATEDQUESTIONS

62,090
1

How?
Beforestartingprogramming,Isearchedabouthowandwheretostart,manysaid
"LearnanAlgorithm,implementit,solveproblemsrelatedtoit".Ididnotdoitthat
way,Ifyouknowwhatalgorithmtouseyougenerallythinkinthatdirectionand
leaveaboutcorrectness.Ididthemproblembyproblem,easytohard,Ispent14
hoursonaproblem.
Igettheidea,Icodeit,GetitAccepted.(Iusedtotestalot,Ialwayswantedtoget
AConfirstgo)

910

Idonotgettheidea,Isavethatproblemandtryitafteramonthagain.IfIstilldo
notgetthem,thensearchforhints.IfitclearlyneededsomealgorithmwhichI
neverusedthenIfirstsmile(?IcouldnotonlybecauseIdidnotknewthe
algorithm:P)andthenstartreadingaboutthatalgorithm.TopCoderhadtutorialsof
almostallcommonalgorithms.ThisiswhereIdidaBIGMISTAKE.Inevercared
aboutcorrectnessorruntimeanalysisproof,Ialwayslearnedhowtosolvethe
problemusingthatalgorithm,Ihardlylearnedabouthowthealgorithmworks.I
feelbadaboutitnow,butthatishowIsolvedthoseproblemsthen.Isolvedmax
flow,convexhull,etc.,problemsusingdescribedalgorithmsbutIdidnot
UNDERSTANDthosealgorithmsthen.
Mistake:OnceIstartedtakingpartincontests,Icompletelystoppedpractice.
35thinGlobalRanking

CodeCheflongcontestsarecomparativelyeasy(Whichisgood,Youcanlearn
alot),yougetalotoftimetothinkaboutaproblem,searchforresources.You
onlyneedKEYWORDStosearchforsimilarproblems.
Igavealotoftimeforeachcontest.Iusedtosolve4easyproblemsin23
days,thentake56daysforother3problems.
CodeChefratingsystemisnotgood.ItishighlyVolatile.
IfIamtostartprogrammingnow,Iwoulddoitthisway
1. Solve200mostsolvedproblemsonSPOJ,Problembyproblem.In2months.
(Thiswillteachallstandardproblems,algorithmsandimplementationskills)
2. SolveproblemsfromCodeChefandCodeForcesfor2months.
(Thiswillteachvariations,wecanreadotherssolutionsandlearnbetterways.
Skipeasyproblems)
3. SolveproblemsfromTopCoderfor2months.
(ThiswillteachDynamicProgramming.Div1500p)
4. CheckpastACMICPCRegional'sProblems
(Greatqualityproblems)

IfIamtolearnanewAlgorithmnow,Iwoulddoitthisway
1. Readitfromatleast34differentsources.
2. Understandcorrectnessproofandruntimeanalysis.
(Thisisveryveryimportant,youwillknowitonlywhenyoudealwithnon
standardandhardproblems)
3. Questionyourselfoneverystepforcorrectness.Trytotweakthe
implementation.
4. Checkotherimplementations.

FinalNote
ThoughtIbecamegoodinsolvingproblemsandhadgoodrank.Ilater(Feb13)
realizedthatIlearneditthewrongway.Ithenstartedlearningagain.Ilearnedall
thealgorithmsagainthistimegaveimportancetothealgorithmitself,correctness
proofandmathematicalanalysis.Itisworththetime.
codechef.com

LucyandtheFlowers ProblemfromDecemberlongcontest,Trytosolveitwith
suffixarrays.YoucanonlyifyouunderstandsuffixarraysandLCPcompletely.
IwasabletosolveanotsoobviousmediumlevelMaxFlowproblematACMKGP
OnsiteonlybecauseIcompletelyunderstoodhowthealgorithmworks.Itwasat4
hour25minutesIgot5thproblemaccepted,thenIreadthisproblemandgotit
accepted4minutesbeforeend.Learningthealgorithmhelped.Dot.
Updated23Dec,2013.57,704views.AskedtoanswerbyAnonymous,AamirKhan,
PradeepGeorgeMathias,(more).
SuggestEdits
Upvote 3k

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Comment

ShilpiSingh14votes(show)
SomethingIhavebeenlookingforages.
Organisedandprecise.
Thanksforsharingthis.
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport22Dec,2013
SunnyShah2votes(show)
Whataboutdatastructures?Didyouspendtimeonthemseparatelyordidyou
learnthemthroughcompetitiveprogramming?
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport20Jun,2014
VishwanathDalvi2votes(show)
Brilliant..gotsomeinspirationfromyou..atwhatageyoustartedthis?I'm24,
workingandlearningaswell..wanttogetbetterinprogrammingskillsstill.
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport22Dec,2013

AnudeepNekkanti4votes(show)
19.
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport23Dec,2013
RahulJain
greatgoing!
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport22Dec,2013
SudeeptoDutta
HeyAnudeep,youseemedtobeusingc++asyourmainprogramminglanguage.
Canyoupleasetellmewhydidyouchoseitandhowdidyouleanedtoprogram
withit??Pleasedosharethebooks/websitesthatyouused.
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport8Jun,2014
PavanKumarDittakavi:MostlikelybecauseC++basedsolutio...
SwapnilBhargava
LoveandRespectforyoudude
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport14May,2014
SpandanPathak
#RESPECTbuddy.
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport22Dec,2013
AshwinMenon
Whatdoyoumeanby'correctness'?Correctnessasinwhythealgorithmworks
(correctnessofthealgorithm)?Orcorrectnessasinwhetherareductionofa
problemononeofthesesitesreducescorrectlytothealgorithm(correctnessof
thereduction)?(Orboth?)
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport5Mar,2014
SriHarshaBolisetti
Excellentanswer!!
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport24Oct,2014
UmmalarajuRamesh
Niceonetoshare..dude!!!thankzz
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport1Jan,2014
AnkammaraoBattula
whenyousay
Mistake:OnceIstartedtakingpartincontests,Icompletelystoppedpractice.
whatdoyoumeanbypractice,isn'tparticipatingincontestsalsopractice??
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport12Jul,2014
AnudeepNekkanti:Iusedtotakepartinlongcontests....
SivaSai
Thanksalot!forsharingthisinfo.Iambeginnerforcompetitiveprogramming,
justnowIhaveregisteredinSPOJ.Iwilltrytosolve200problemsinonemonth
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport29Aug,2014
PathSukesh
Ijoinedtheclgthisyearandwaslookingforawaytodevelopmyself.
thankyouannayaforexplaininghowtoproceedforthenextfouryears:)
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport9Nov,2014
ShupornoChoudhury
Howtodotheruntimeanalysisofanycode?Imeanhowtoknowthetime(in
seconds)thatthecodetakestorun?
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport8Feb
KrishnaKowshik1votebyTaraShankarChakraborty
AnudeepNekkantiWhatifi'mbadatMath?Anysuggestions?
Reply... UpvoteDownvoteShareReport5Jul,2014
KaushikWavhal:AnudeepNekkanti:Howmuchofthesep...

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