Overview

Competitive Programming is not an easy task it requires a lot of knowledge as well as hardwork and a lot motivation towards tough time.In few of our previous blogs we have talked about what is competitive programming and what are some good programming languages for competitive programming.If you haven't read that article then click here. I will be writing some good blogs on competitive in future.Personally I love competitive programming.Competitive programming is actually a tough task at least from my side.As I told you earlier that I have written a separate blog on "What is Competitive Programming and What are some good programming languages for competitive programming".

Getting Started With Competitive Programming

To get started with competitive programming,you should know the basics of any programming language.C++,Java and Python are the three most popular languages for competitive programming,you can use any programming language of your choice but I will suggest you to either use Java or C++ as they are best for this task.After learning the basics of any Programming language,you should learn some high school mathematics not a lot,a brief introduction is enough.Now what to do after this,make sure that you are god at the basics of any Programming language as stated,if you are good then start solving some small problems based on strings,numbers,loops and if else condition.After that the real game begins,you can either a buy a good book for competitive programming.I have listed down some of the books below:

1.Competitive Programmer's Handbook by Antti Laaksonen[https://amzn.to/2QQ6nXE]

2.Data Structures and Algorithms Made Easy: Data Structures and Algorithmic Puzzles[https://amzn.to/3bpttOh]

The above two books are some of the best books for competitive programming according to me.Actually don't believe me but a large number of programmers,says that these books have helped them a lot.You can buy any of these books.

Now what next?The next step is none other than reading that book with complete dedication and motivation.After completing the book,you will be able to solve problems on competitive programming but that will not be enough to win coding competitions such as Google Code Jam or Kickstart.To win these contests,you have to work a lot by practicing more and more on Algorithms and solving a large variety of problems.Websites like Hackerrank.com,codeforces.com and leetcode.com are of some great websites to practice coding.You can also solve previous year questions of kickstart and code jam at it's official website.Day by Day you will learn new concepts,tricks and will be able to solve very complex problems of your own and then you can say that "You are a good competitive programmer".

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