What is Codeforces?

Codeforces is a website that organizes competitive programming competitions. It is maintained by a competing group of programmers from ITMO University, headed by Mikhail Mirzayanov.

Since 2013, Codeforces claims to surpass Topcode in the number of contestants. As of 2018, it has over 600,000 registered users. Codeforces along with other similar websites are used by top programmers such as Gennady Korotkevich, Petr Mitrichev and Makoto Soejima, as well as programmers interested in furthering their careers.

What is Codeforces? Picture 1 What is Codeforces? Picture 1

10 best tips to get started with Codeforces

There's no need to say more about the importance of competitive programming in any software engineer's journey. Most beginners don't know how to use Codeforces and end up wasting a lot of time on it. Most of them also lose motivation when they cannot solve the problem and end up with the thought that they are not capable of doing it.

Codeforces is one of the best platforms for competitive coding and is often known for its short challenges/competitions where programmers from all over the world participate. Here you can practice problems from beginner to very advanced levels. But most people don't know how to get started with Codeforces and how to use it fully.

So here are some tips to follow:

If you are new to competitive coding, don't directly participate in competitions. First, go to the PROBLEMSET option and set the difficulty level from 800-1000. Then, all the problems at that difficulty level will appear before your eyes. Let's start solving those problems! Then solve at least 30-40 problems to get familiar with the question type and background. As soon as you get used to those problems, you can start with competitions.
Try offering all kinds of contests (2-3 contests per week). Initially, you may be able to solve 1 or 2 problems in the competition, or you may not be able to solve even one problem, but don't lose hope and continue practicing those problems. You cannot become a 'top' programmer in 1 or 2 months. This requires perseverance and a lot of practice.
Since competitions have a limited time, you also have to focus on them and try to solve the problem as quickly as possible.
Only read editorials if you have spent enough time on the issue and do not read the entire article. Look at the tags first and then start rethinking the problem. If you still don't know how to solve the question, go back to the article to continue reading.
After each competition, try to solve the remaining problems. This is really important because you will be able to learn many new concepts and tricks from it. For those who don't know, up-solution means solving the remaining problems that you haven't solved during the competition.
After solving any practice problems, review other users' solutions. You will learn different and easy approaches from those solutions, which will definitely help you when dealing with future problems.
Continue increasing the difficulty of the questions as soon as you are confident of solving questions at a particular difficulty level.
You can also add tags if you want to practice math problems related to a specific topic.
As you solve more problems, your confidence will increase and if you are patient, you will definitely become a top programmer.
Finally, BE CONSISTENT and KEEP PRACTICE.

Important tip:

One most important thing to remember is – never lose your confidence because sometimes you may come across some difficult questions and not know how to solve them, but never be afraid of them. Spend enough time trying to solve the problem and pay attention to editorials or ask your supervisor for help if you get stuck on a particular issue. But don't lose motivation and never think that you can't do the questions because nothing is impossible.

About the competitions:

In Codeforces, competitions take place very often. There are 2-3 competitions per week and the duration of each competition is mostly 2-3 hours. Some competitions are also available to you depending on the ranking. If you are a beginner then you can give ranked competitions for Division 2, Division 3 and Division 4. Your rating will increase or decrease based on the problems you solve in each competition and the time you process it. The less time you spend on each issue, the higher your rating.