[USACO Monthly] March

Foundation · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2009 6:09 pm

So does anyone else do the USACO monthly contest found at contest.usaco.org? It's a very good contest to practice algorithmic programming in a contest environment. I recommend all to write as it has "Bronze", "Silver", and "Gold" for all levels of competitors. You advance from Bronze to Silver and from Silver to Gold be doing well on a monthly contest.

If you have any questions, please ask and I try my best to provide you with a reasonable answer.

The April OPEN contest is coming up if anyone's interested.

A.J · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2009 6:13 pm

You don't have to provide them with the answers, they can find for themsielves. I agree that the March one is a good practice one

Alexmula · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:30 pm

can i do this contest with python

Analysis Mode · **Posted:** Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:25 pm

No, C C++ Pascal Java are the only available languages. How far are you guys in USACO? I haven't worked on it in a while; I enjoy working on other judges, namely SPOJ. I'm in silver, what about you guys? How'd you do this contest?

saltpro15 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:37 am

Chap 1, Q3 I think haha. I only worked on USACO for a week or two, I do SPOJ though, I like the questions more.

Analysis Mode · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:29 pm

What's your user name?

saltpro15 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:33 pm

SPOJ or USACO?

A.J · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:50 pm

I do the training pages in USACO. I am at the last 2 questions in Chapter 5. I have been working on these for about 1 year (I started 13th March 2008). The questions are quite challenging, but there are always some trivial ones along the way to motivate you (thanks god for those, they are lifesavers Very Happy

). I started SPOJ sometime ago, but the questions are kinda all over the place...they ought to be sorted according to some level of difficulty. Although thats just my opinion.

saltpro15 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:23 pm

haha funny you should mention the randomness of SPOJ's A.J., you're absolutely correct, they are everywhere. I just scroll at random and pick one with my eyes shut Razz

Analysis Mode · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:34 pm

@saltpro15 - uhhh, how about both? Razz

oh and SPOJ problems? I stalk Blue Mary (although 90% of the time, the problems he does are ICPC, NEERC, etc. problems so they're too difficult) and I hawk the status page.

Foundation · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:22 pm

Does anyone participate in the USACO monthly contest like the one that just finished?

A.J wrote:

You don't have to provide them with the answers, they can find for themsielves. I agree that the March one is a good practice one

Yes, they can look up the answers themselves, but not everyone's familiar with the USACO format.

Alexmula wrote:

can i do this contest with python

Though python is not an officially allowed language, the test cases, problems, and analysis are language independent and it's still nice to practice with such well designed problems in the language of your choice.

Analysis Mode wrote:

No, C C++ Pascal Java are the only available languages. How far are you guys in USACO? I haven't worked on it in a while; I enjoy working on other judges, namely SPOJ. I'm in silver, what about you guys? How'd you do this contest?

I take it that you mean the USACO training pages. I'm into Chapter 5, but I have stopped as the USACO problems get farther and farther from present day types of problems that you see in USACO monthly, DWITE, ECOO, CCC, Stage 2, or IOI. They are nice problems, but they do not do that much for contest preparation after you learn the lessons presented. The first few chapters are an essential to any serious programmer to start out with though. I'm in Gold but the placements does not really matter as it is what you take away from these contests that really matter. A member of last year's Canadian IOI team said that he only practiced on all the silver questions. USACO is a very unique judge when you look at the world of Online Judges (OJ) as it actually provides you with the test cases and answers when you have trouble. The problem for many when working on the other OJ's is the fact that you may have to search through page after page and many forums before you find out how to solve the mysterious, obscure problem in your code or tricky test cases. Though some may enjoy that. Wink

saltpro15 wrote:

Chap 1, Q3 I think haha. I only worked on USACO for a week or two, I do SPOJ though, I like the questions more.

What types of questions do you like from SPOJ? I'd be interested to know as I also work on some SPOJ occasionally but it seems hard to find reasonable questions.

saltpro15 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:43 pm

@Analysis Mode, there really isn't a point to giving you ms USACO one, it's very noobish, but my SPOJ is drew_saltarell, the damn site chopped off the "i" on my last name Sad

@Foundation
I dunno Very Happy

whatever ones I think I can solve lol

Analysis Mode · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:59 pm

lol, I looked at your submissions page. It doesn't look like you've been working lol Razz

saltpro15 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:56 am

nope haha, i do try a few now and then, i'm a bit behind on submissions

A.J · **Posted:** Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:16 pm

wait, Foundation, are you how I think you are?...and if you are, you'll know what I mean..

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