Start Competitive Programming!

2024 update!

OK, so you want to do some competitive programming.

Maybe you've heard that competitive programming is great interview prep for the coding interview.

Or that it can help you learn to be a better programmer.

Or that it can help you learn algorithms and problem-solving to supercharge your code.

Or that competitive programming is fun.

All true! (Well, we hope it's fun :-) )

If you want to get started with competitive programming, look no further. Inside, you'll find:

• Expert advice from the authors. Dr. Baharav (that's Coach B in the book :-) ) is a competitive programming coach. Dr. Zingaro is the author of several bestselling algorithms, Python, problem-solving, and competitive programming books and a professional editor.
• Advice for how to categorize a problem before trying to solve it. Why categorize? Because then you know what kind of problem it is and what solution techniques to try! Modelling problems, search problems, optimization problems, geometry problems (don't run away... NO PROOFS, we promise!), string problems, ad hoc problems -- we've got them.
• Communication between a coach and their team. Like what a real coach would do! We're not just gonna jump to the final answer and call it a day. That would just be confusing. We need to explore and learn first!
• C++ code for all problems in the book.
• Curated, categorized selections of practice problems, with hints and full C++ code. Python code also provided!

Stop spending time figuring out what to learn next, getting confused by cryptic code, or circling around many different websites. Our no-nonsense guide shows you how to navigate, from "never tried competitive programming before" all the way to "BOOM, passed Bronze!"

Wanna participate in Advent of Code? Codeforces? Leetcode? Or want to prepare for the coding interview? You can! We focus on USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) Bronze level for this book, but you can apply what you learn to whatever competitive programming or interview prep you'd like to do.