I wish I got into competitive programming earlier...

WIP! Last updated Oct 26 2025 while I am still updating my site

I’m taking a class for Competitive Programming, and it’s been really great. I love the competition format, improving at DSA, and practicing my implementation.

But man, I wish I started earlier.

I mean, it’s not like I was doing nothing before college, but like…I’ve learned so much in comparison (maybe it’s just the CS grindset…). I did some competitive math in middle/high school, but I was never super elite and I think I grew less fond of it over time. The fast computation and clever idea parts appealed more than the mature evaluation of formal logic, which became more present as levels rose.

CP keeps the part I liked. The feedback is instant: you submit, and seconds later you know whether it passed. And when it doesn’t, the failure is explicit and debuggable. There is a concrete input your solution gets wrong, and you can go find it, instead of a proof that someone reads and finds unconvincing. On top of that it felt so exciting, with more opportunities to perform online (like chess), and ALSO the actual, practical benefit of fast typing (I did not know how to touch type) and technical interview practice (though objectively, they are not a good measure of coding/problem solving proficiency).

Chess is my reference point for the regret. I played a lot more than I should have, and got to around 2200, or top 99.9% on chess.com. If I had put that same drive into CP, I would have progressed at least as far. I could have been, like, really good. Super good? Quite good.

“Earlier” really just means knowing about USACO. I didn’t. And I think that’s a big part of how people at better high schools, or with more motivated friends, get ahead: not because they’re smarter, but because someone told them these opportunities exist.

I wonder how many other people had a similar regret. If only I’d known. But all we can do is carry on, keys clacked ceaselessly into the past; the second best time is now. Huh. That sounds familiar…