People debate how useful competitive programming practice is for getting better at real-world programming. But there’s one area where it definitely helps:

Why are people obsessed with competitive programming when it’s not used in real-world programming jobs? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

To get better at solving coding interview problems, you have to solve a lot of coding interview problems. So a reasonable question to ask (though it’s hard to answer accurately) is:

How many LeetCode problems should I do? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

This question seems basic, but it’s a core issue in math and programming practice:

What does one do when they read a problem statement, think a bit and figure they don’t know how to solve it? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

In many Quora questions, people ask what’s required to start competitive programming. It’s not always clear what they’re looking for with these questions, since you don’t need to apply to be a competitive programmer. Online judges are free. Just register and try one out. Here’s a question where the writer is a bit more specific about what they’re asking:

Do I need to be good at algorithms to begin competitive programming or can I start from the bottom and get better by doing? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

Some companies use a combination of automated and manual screening when deciding which candidates to invite for in-person interviews. A Quora user had a question about that:

Do companies that test their applicants using HackerRank actually look at the code or just whether they passed the test cases or not? (answer)

And here’s another question like the one from last week: How do I approach harder LeetCode problems without first looking at the solutions? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

If you practice math or programming problems from a source that provides solutions, you have to decide when to peek at the solution. That might lead you to ask a question like this:

Is it still effective learning if I try medium and hard coding challenges and give up after 30 minutes and just review all the solutions if I can’t solve it myself? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

There are a lot of competitive programming problems out there. How do you decide which ones to practice? For example:

What is the best strategy to tackle LeetCode problems, sort by the highest acceptance rates or problems related to one concept together? (answer)

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

What are the benefits of being a Codeforces expert? (answer)

Is the writer of this question talking about an Expert-rated Codeforces user, or do they mean someone who is really good at solving Codeforces programming problems. My guess is the latter.

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.

Is there a proven method of preparing for coding interviews which is more efficient than LeetCode and self-study? (answer)

There’s more to a coding interview than just solving programming problems. But the programming part is what where people usually run into trouble.

Why is this post so short? Find the answer, and links to a blog table of contents, at A Summer 2019 Experiment.