So you want to be a topcoder?

What is this about?

How to start competing at TopCoder and similar websites, The knowledge of algorithms you should have to be proficient at it, events and IRL competitions, competitors you should follow.

Table of Contents

• How to Start
• Online Competition
• Events
• Competitors
• Discussions
• Algorithms
• Math for Programmers

Online Competition

• Topcoder
• Codeforces
• Codechef
• HackerRank

Events

• TopCoder Open
• IOI - International Olympiad in Informatics
• ICPC - International Collegiate Programming Contest
• Google Code Jam
• Facebook Hacker Cup

Competitors

• Petr Mitrichev

  • Blog
  • Profile on TopCoder
  • The Story of Petr Mitrichev
  • Profile on Quora

• Gennady Korotkevich (tourist)

  • Profile on TopCoder
  • Profile on CodeForces
  • Profile on CodeChef
  • Profile on Quora

• Brian Bi

  • Profile on Quora
  • Profile on Twitter
  • Profile on Github

Discussions

• What is it like to meet or know Petr Mitrichev
• Data Structures: What is a list of data structures that a competitive programmer must know?
• How does one prepare for the IOI? (Aiming for gold)
• What is competitive programming?
• How is competitive programming different from real life programming?
• What are some good pieces of music to listen to while coding
• How can a beginner train for machine learning contests
• What is a list of Data Structures that a Competitive Programmer must know
• Are there any good resources or tutorials for Dynamic Programming besides the TopCoder tutorial
• What is needed to become good algorithmist like top rankers in Topcoder/Spoj/CCJ?
• How did Adam D'Angelo improved so fast in TopCoder
• What are some reasons a programmer should participate in a programming competition such as TopCoder

Algorithms

• Dynamic Programming

  • Dynamic Programming - From Novice to Advanced
  • Dynamic Programming for Programming Competitions - Lecture

• Graphs

• Trees

• Computational Complexity

• Data Structures

• Sorting

• Binary Search

Math for programmers

• Mathematics for Computer Science MIT Open Coursware
• Quora - What are some must know topics in discrete math and probability for competitive programming