I have actively used Codechef for 1+ year.

Here is what I would suggest. I would start like this if I can get access to a time machine!

Follow this step wise:

1. Before starting on Codechef solve all the data structures and algorithmic questions on HackerRank (atleast easy and medium problems). HackerRank is more beginner friendly website. HackerRank has nice categories and better UI/UX. This step is to get you addicted to problem solving, to retain your attention (shiny things are better at this stuff then dull boring looking things).
2. Then proceed to SPOJ. Dull UI, but remember old is gold! Solve the first 100 or 150 classical problems in the decreasing order of “Solved by most number of users”. By doing this you will get aware about the most commonly used algorithms and data structures used in competitive programming contests on Codechef and other OJs. This step is neccessary because otherwise you might feel overwhelmed if you directly give contests. You should start of with atleast some basic knowlege. When we start a fresh session of a mission like or a 3rd person video game we start of with some basic ammunition and later reload or collect weapons from the people we kill. So its same here, don’t go in a war bare hand :)
3. Finally enter the world of Codechef. Start giving Long Challenges, Cook Offs and Lunchtime contests. You can also try contests on CodeForces (speciality of Codeforces is that they don’t run all the test cases during contest, they do it afterwards. Also its a more global platform. Much harder competition). After the contests check the editorials and discussion forum for solutions of the questions which you couldn’t solve during the contest. If the editorial mentions about some new algorithm or data structure, go learn that first and come back to the editorial after that. Use the newly learned concepts and apply that to solve the question yourself. This is the phase where actual improvement will happen. If you don’t understand something feel free to ask it on the discussion forum. Codechef/codeforces communities are really helpful!
4. You need to have lots of patience. It is going to be a long journey. Sometimes you will get stuck on a problem for the whole day or may be more than a day. Just don’t give up and don’t expect immediate results. Improvement (increase in level or rating) will come in phases. May be first improvement in 2,3 or 6 months. Next improvement in another 4,5 months. Depends on person to person. Also please don’t cheat for rating, avoid plagiarism. Always remember rating is temporary, knowledge is permanent!

Bonus Tip: If you have started early (first year of college or you are still in school) in this journey of competitive programming, you can also try to complete Project Euler before starting with contests (step 3). Project Euler will improve your mathematics. This will help you in solving math problems in CP (consider this as a kind of extra edge over others). Normally, contestants fear DP and Graph problems. But those who can solve DP and Graph problems comfortably, they fear maths related problems. So if you can also get the better of mathematics you will enter the very elite league of competitive programmers!

Start with really simple problems. Even the problems in the Easy section may seem challenging to beginners so make sure you go with really simple ones first that just test the most basic concepts.

Get used to the following terms

Wrong Answer-Means the output produced by you is not correct. This usually happens due to a fault in your logic.

Time Limit exceeded-Your program is taking more than the allotted time to run. This could be because you are using an inefficient algorithm or performing unnecessary iterations. Some problems also require you to have fast Input and output and not doing so can cause this problem

Run Time error-This usually occurs when you do something like divide by zero or access an invalid array index.

Compilation error-Syntax errors

Accepted-Your code worked fine and passed all the testcases.

Once you solve a fair amount of easy problems only then try to go to more difficult ones. Try to solve questions from as many domains as possible ie number theory, bit manipulation, arrays, strings etc.

Try to solve only problems related to logic, arrays, strings etc at first. Once you gain skill in these you can go for sorting , dynamic programming and other data structures.

One thing is for certain. You will get stuck from time to time! Sometimes for a few days. Do not let this bring you down. It is completely normal! Do not feel ashamed to look at solutions to problems you cannot solve.Its okay!

If you feel yourself getting demotivated at any stage solve some simple problems to bring up your confidence level.

Try taking part in contests as it will give you an idea of what it is like to program under pressure.

All the best !

In the practice section, you’ll have few sections based on the difficulty. Since you’re a beginner start with the basic section and once you find them go to the next level medium and then hard. Also, you can participate in the long challenge which will start on the 1st of every month. Long challenges will be pretty hard but don’t give up. It’s okay to do one question too. Make sure you get to know how to do those questions in the editorial once the challenge ends. And there will be short challenges with a duration from 3–5hrs. Participate in those challenges and you can check your position compared to others in the leader board.

Suggestion

Make sure you practice one code everyday. Coding everyday is a good habit and you can improve yourself. Good luck!

If you want you can check out other sites like Hackerearth , Hackerrank. They have decent programming questions.

Believe me, when you run a code you might get Time limit exception that’s the most irritating error. When you get such an error, it means your code is not efficient try coming up with a new solution with less complexity. The most important part in programming is Data structures and Algorithms you can refer different sites to learn them or Introduction to algorithms book by Cormen.

Even though you have explicitly mentioned that you want to try Codechef, but I would suggest you to try Codeforces too. Its Div2 questions (A and B) are fairly easy which do not require much knowledge of algorithms too. Start with that, then you can filter out the problems related to the topic you want to work on. For example, greedy, dynamic programming, graphs. You may also practice problems on Codechef as it has wonderful collection of problems, and you could use tags to filter the type of problems that you want to solve.

Important: Do not just solve easy problems, always solve problems which are a little harder than what you already know. Because just solving easy problems won't help you in developing skills, this is a common mistake which many people make when they begin with competitive programming.

First of all Being good in c++ won’t do much good. You have to be good in algorithms and datastructures. You can use Introduction to Algorithm By CLRS.
Next not only http://codechef.com join other sites too like codeforces.com, topcoder, hackerrank. Try to participate in as many as competitions you can. After competitions read editorials (see others solutions) then improve your solutions and see solutions for those problems you can’t solve(here you will learn the most).
In codechef you can start from school level problems and move forward.
Here is a website (USACO Training Program Gateway)for the training of competitive programming, it will teach you most of the stuff that you need for competitive programming.

What are the best coding sites for practices as a beginner?

From Prakash Deivakani s blog :

How can you start programming?

Step 1: Learn a programming language. There are lots of books to learn programming. If you can't afford a book you can use some Library. If you hate books, you can learn online through w3schools.com. The syntax and the procedures will trouble you initially. But it’s worth it.

Step 2: Start solving some real time problems. There are many websites where you can start solving real time problems. You can start with SPOJ, ProjectEuler and MyCodeSchool.

Step 3: After solving few basic problems you should start learning Data Structures and Algorithms which could help you solve challenging and interesting real time problems. As MyCodeSchool provides nice video tutorials, I recommend you to learn and practice there.

Step 4: Get like-minded friends and participate in programming camps and competitions. Compete in Topcoder where all the programmers in the world take part regularly. Participate in IOI if you are in school and participate in ICPC if you are in college. Win a GOLD for our country.

Data Structures and Algorithms are very important. In addition if you want to learn Game Programming, learn openGL and keep in touch with Vector Algebra and Trigonometry. If you want to create programs which can think like humans you should learn Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Hey, that's great that you are done with basics of C.

This is an official video from codechef on YouTube showing how to solve first problem on codechef in C.

But i would say before jumping directly onto codechef. First solve questions on hackerrank, it will help you to get the main things clear like how to write the code on IDE, What are test cases, what are constraints.

After solving approx 20–30 questions, then you can start with codechef. And when you get familiar with codechef. I would recommend you to give contests on codechef as well as codeforces. These two are good sites.

Rest all depend on your practice and dedication.

Good luck!

Follow these steps and you'll be good to get started.

Goto Programming Competition,Programming Contest,Online Computer Programming

Click on Signup(its at the homepage)/Facebook Connect.

When you are done registering,follow these steps:

1. Start by solving the 1st 10 problems through this link: beginner | CodeChef (sorted by Successful Submissions)
2. and after you have done that start solving problems through this link:

beginner | CodeChef (sorted by Accuracy)

Note that both these links are different.

Bookmark them.

If you follow this method you will be able to solve atleast 50 problems in no time and then you can start participating in contests. There are three monthly contests here:

• Long contest/Challenge(10 days)
• Short Contest/CookOff(2.5 hrs)
• Lunchtime(2.5 hrs)
• And if you have any doubt there is this Codechef Forum where people are there to help you all the time. CodeChef Discuss
• Read the FAQs before you start solving problems,it may help. FAQ | CodeChef
• These links may also help you get started if you do not want to get frustrated over getting errors on the codechef judge and leaving codechef even before getting started:

• Even if you are stuck in a particular problem for hours,don't give up,people get stuck on problems for weeks/months.Try it

THANKS !!!

Here are a few simple steps:

1) Go to the Easy Section : PRACTICE | CodeChef

2) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and then open and solve this:
: Life, the Universe, and Everything

3) Congratulations!! You have now started solving questions on Codechef.

Now after that keep going up initially solving questions with submission accuracy > 50%, then 40,30... Keep going until you manage to solve the tough questions. You need not solve all questions in a particular segment. Just solve enough to improve your speed and confidence in that particular segment. The more you solve the better.

P.S. 1) If you randomly pick and solve easy questions you might end up progressing very very slowly since some questions here are pretty difficult. Trust percentage accuracy to judge difficulty.

2) Do not peek into others solutions or read the editorials before solving a problem.Try doing everything on your own.

first of my suggestion to you would be if you want to be a programmer/ developer/ software engineer try to get into CS/IT or it would be a bit difficult( I am also an ECE student and a really good programmer).

So moving on to your question well I would suggest you to C lang in depth and try to use online resources like geeksforgeeks. and start with the beginner section of Codechef with sorted order in most successful submissions first.

Keep a daily habit of solving 10 questions everyday. Initially it may look difficult so you are allowed to look at the solutions. But slowly you would get used to solving problems on your own. Then move on to easy sections but don't try to solve all the questions in easy section pick and solve only those which involve an algorithm.

meanwhile you will also have to work on data structures and algorithms which can learn from geeksforgeeks and keep solving problems on Codechef its really a great website to practice coding.

happy coding!!

Competitive Programming is a sport where you have to solve questions very quickly. You are also required to cover the whole syllabus very quickly.

1. Try solving some basic standard question and give enough time to understand it properly( :) and memorize it). Give some easy questions a try and look at atleast 20 solution after giving enough honest attempts and learn new tricks and methods from this.
2. Be ambitious simultaneously read advance concept. dont try solving problems now, just read it and get a idea of what it is all about and when it is used (and remember it).
3. Dont run after rating and even if you do, dont let it demotivate you because your ultimate goal is to be capable enough to solve 9 out of 10 questions in long contest.
4. Find a problem and try to find similar problem or increase the difficulty yourself, so that you are understanding it from every angle.

Its pretty easy . First signup and create and Id of yours on CodeChef. Then before starting doing practise problems, go to these two links and read whatever is given there. It will take time but I would suggest to be thorough with these two links:

• http://www.codechef.com/wiki/faq
• Tutorials | CodeChef
  

After this you can lay your hands on some practise problems. They are classified as easy,medium and hard. So, it wouldn't be tough for you to find out the beginner questions which would get your brain pumping. Even in Easy section, first try to do those questions which have been attempted by most users. Avoid seeing the solutions of other users as much as possible.

There are two contests on Codechef every month . The Long and Cook-Off . Long contests are held for approximately 10 days starting from the 1st week of every month. If you will work hard over those 10 days, you would easily get 3-4 questions and that would be an excellent start. Then there are Cook-Offs which are a 2.5 hours contests. There are 5 questions of varying difficulty and you should try doing first two questions in the start even though you might get your logic or your code wrong sometimes.

Then the most important part. After the contests are over, the editorials are published which basically explain the algorithm for the problems. Also, you can see the author's and the tester's solutions. But I would advice you to first read those editorials, understand whatever the Data structures or the algorithms are being talked about from the internet and then attempt those questions on your own before looking at solutions. If you do this regularly, in one year you would be doing 7-8 questions in the long contests.

In order to improve your coding skills, I would recommend you to study:

• The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup
• Data structures by Sartaj-Sahni ,
• Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen and
• Algorithm Design - Kleinman .

Happy Coding !!!

Competitive Programming is type of programming where coders write code of a problem in restriction of memory and execution time. A code simple take input from input stream and provide output to output stream. (Generally input is provided by the problem setter, and you program is checked on a set of input)

So, here are some basic knowledge you should have as a beginner of competitive programmer.

1. Don't write unnecessary cin, cout instruction. You don't have user on the other hand, you are simply providing code to a platform which is going to compile code and for running purpose it will take input form Input section and provide output in output section.

Write some code on sites such as IDEONE, you will get the basic understanding of how code should be design. Look up the output pattern what your problem setter asking and according to that start coding.

2) Once you understand, how to write code in proper format for competitive programming. Jump to sites such as SPOJ or Codechef. Join the site and start practising.

3) How to select a appropriate question for submission ? Well for this arrange the questions in decreasing order of most successful submission. This list will first provide you the most basic question, which will definitely improve you basic understanding.

4) Practise and solve more question for being better at competitive programming.

5) Check out following topic for more extra help : Codechef Discussion for DataStructure and Algorithm , Code Monk : A Initiative by Hacker Earth

Hi, first of all thanks to the A2A (I have recently started to write on Quora and every request to answer a question pumps so much adrenaline in my body I can’t help but mention it.) Chandan Kumar

Now, not going astray from the topic, Codechef is a website for competitive programming that is built basically to help students and professionals to enhance their coding skills. It is a nice platform which is useful to practice programming and implementing the problems, which range from beginner to expert difficulty level. This can be a lot helpful for beginners who want to practice on some of the famous problems. Codechef supports a large number of different programming languages, and I mean A LOT, which makes it convenient for the user to practice in his preferred language.

When the user thinks that he has practiced enough and is ready to be able to compete with other people, this requirement is also fulfilled. Codechef conducts programming contests globally so that beginners as well as experts can evaluate their skill set, their understanding of the concepts and assess where they stand among the other programmers all around the world.

There is no shortage of contests, really, ranging from short duration contests which last for about 3 hours, to long duration contests which last for several days. There are points awarded to the participants for being in a specified criteria in the result list of the contests which can be redeemed for various goodies from codechef, which in my opinion is a very nice way to motivate people to continuously take part in contests.

Codechef proves to be a very good platform for beginners but there may often be times when beginners won’t be able to solve certain problems and be frustrated and annoyed since the there are quite a few differences in the way competitive programming problems are done and how they are taught to the students in schools and colleges. That is why I would recommend people to have some prior knowledge of basic concepts of programming languages, understanding of data structures and algorithms, which prove to be a lot helpful when solving problems on any competitive programming platform, be it codechef or any other. HackerRank is a nice place to brush up your knowledge of programming languages, data structures and algorithms.

Once you get used to codechef’s system, you’ll be amazed how user friendly it is and how convenient it is to solve problems and you’ll definitely start enjoying it a lot.

HAPPY LEARNING.

Codechef is a programming contest platform. On Codechef you can find numerous programming challenges which can help sharpen your programming and problem solving skills. This can be done by utilizing the large number of programming challenges (along with editorials) that Codechef has.

Start easy

As a beginner you must start with simpler challenges until you get a feel of how Codechef works and how to code and submit your solutions. You can find a list of easy problems at http://www.codechef.com/problems/easy. But beware! All problems in that list are not really easy. The best way to choose an easy problem is by looking at the number of successful submissions. The more successful submissions a problem has, the easier the problem is!

One problem that is really easy and also tests your I/O operations is Life, the Universe, and Everything. Solving this problem after you join Codechef is the equivalent of writing a "Hello World" program when learning a new programming language.

If you are unable to solve a problem don't hesitate to look at the editorial. Now would be a good time to mention that not all problems on Codechef have an editorial. This is true especially for old problems. All problem that appear on current official contests have an editorial.

Find easy problems with editorials

If you wish to attempt to solve only those problems that have an editorial, then you should go to the All Contests page which have names like "May Challenge", "April Cook-Off", "April Lunchtime" etc. These are official Codechef contests. Find the problem with the most number of successful submissions. This is the easiest problem in the contest and since this is a contest problem it definitely has an editorial.

Where do I go from here?

Once you are comfortable with the platform and with solving programming challenges, you can start trying to solve harder problems. You can, for example, start practicing in the Medium or the Hard section. One very good way to improve proficiency and speed is to participate regularly in contests. After a contest make sure you read the editorials and solve the problems you weren't able to solve during the contest (this is called upsolving and is really important if you want to improve your skills).

Official Codechef contests

Every month Codechef conducts 3 contests.

• Long challenge
  A long challenge is a 10-day contest with 10 problems of varying difficulty. This usually starts on the first Friday of a month.
• Cook-off
  This is a much shorter contest that lasts for 2.5 hours and features 5 problems of varying difficulty.
• Lunchtime
  This is a 3 hour IOI-style contest meant for school students. A Lunchtime usually features 4 problems. If you think that the problems in this one are gonna be easy, you are in for big surprise.

Other contests

In addition to the official contests Codechef colleges to host their own programming contests on their platform (for free). Most of these contests feature fairly easy problems.

I will assume that you are completely new to competitive programming but have some basic amount of knowledge about some programming knowledge like using loops , if - else, && and || , Arrays.

Then all you have to do is:

1. Take a chair.
2. Take a PC.
3. Take a notebook and pen. Because remember competitive coding is more about thinking than coding. Sometimes you think for hours to solve a problem and code it in about 10 minutes. :D
4. Start with the Practice -> Beginner section. Choose any random problem from the Beginner section. Have confidence that you can solve them . They require just tiny amount of logical reasoning to solve them.
5. Use your notebook to represent and organize your ideas. Use figures to visualize what the problem is demanding.
6. Try various approaches. If you are failing in initial approaches. Don’t worry try for an hour.
7. If still failed, scroll down. Below the problem statement you will see something called “Editorial” . Read it , understand it. Try to compare with your approaches to see where you were going wrong, or what you were missing in your approach.
8. Reading the editorial and finally understanding the solution is not enough. Try to code yourself without looking at Author’s or Tester’s code.
9. Try a dozen of Beginner problems.

OK, All set. Now you have tasted the waters of competitive programming. You can attend any contest. Because first problem of any Short Contest is Beginner level problem. And , first 1-2 problems of Long Contest are Beginner level problem. Anyway remember that long contest lasts for 10 days. So do try for the further problems. Because competitive coding improves by thinking along with coding.

I understand your situation. I have been where you are and used to feel exactly the same. Things I learnt from my experience:

1. Patience.

Questions on the sites are always tricky and we tend to model our solution based on the test cases given which makes us often miss out corner cases or tricky ones which are hard to spot. Patiently thinking, reading the question to make sure I didn't miss out something important can help.

2. Practice
The more you code the more you'll get to know to tackle different kinds of problems.

3. Reading solutions
After spending hours and hours and finally still not being able to crack it, I prefer looking at the submitted solutions and then coding the understood solution yourself ( learnt this from Quora )

Here is a list of Questions I found very helpful:

How should I practice so that I will be at a level where I can approach TopCoder's Div1-500 problems with confidence? I am a rookie with zero competitive programming experience.

What are the 10 algorithms one must know in order to solve most algorithm problems?

What were the pointers given by Ajay Somani to Nikhil Garg regarding preparation for ICPC?

Nikhil Garg's answer to How should I practice so that I will be at a level where I can approach TopCoder's Div1-500 problems with confidence? I am a rookie with zero competitive programming experience.

What is needed to become good algorithmist like top rankers in Topcoder/Spoj/GCJ?

and if you find there'll be a lot more questions with similar answers which can help you just like they did me :)
Good Luck

Original question - How do I apply for a CodeChef contest as I am a completely beginner in CodeChef?

There is no pre-requisite to apply for a CodeChef contest. You just need to have a account created on CC and you can apply to almost all CodeChef contests.

Judging by the tone of the question, I am guessing that you might want to ask, how can I compete with others being a total beginner. Everyone is a beginner at some point, then they participate for the first time, does not rank good at all. They upsolve the questions after the contest, read unknown topics asked in the contest, practice them, read topics suggested by others, practice them, participate again in contest, rank not good at all.

Then they Upsolve, read, practice, learn. Rank not good.

Participate again, upsolve, read, practice, learn.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Keeps repeating. And after some hard work their ranking gets better with time.

Keep in mind to get better one have to continuously level up whenever he learns the stuff of current level. (I am one of those types, stays stuck on the same level for very very long periods. Don't be like me. :D)

Hope that helps.

Taking part in CodeChef competitions can offer several benefits for someone who is just starting out with programming.

1. CodeChef competitions provide a platform to test and enhance your programming skills . By participating in challenges, you'll encounter various types of problems that require different algorithms and data structures
2. CodeChef competitions often feature real-world scenarios and problem statements, which can mimic challenges faced by professional software developers.
3. Engaging in CodeChef competitions nurtures personal growth by enhancing your problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and perseverance.
4. Recognition and Rewards
5. CodeChef competitions provide a platform to interact with fellow programmers, including beginners, intermediates, and experts. Building connections in the programming community can lead to valuable collaborations, mentorship opportunities, and exposure to new ideas and perspectives.