Start Competitive Programming!: Ace the USACO Bronze Competition
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Start Competitive Programming!: Ace the USACO Bronze Competition

About the Book

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 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 competitive programming books.

-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 his team. Like what a real coach would do!

-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? We focus on USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) Bronze level for this book, but what you learn applies to other competitive programming settings as well.

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    • C and C++
    • Computers and Programming
    • Computer Science
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About the Authors

Zachi Baharav
Zachi Baharav

Dr. Zachi Baharav holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

After more than 20 years in the hi-tech industry and academia, I retired to dedicate my time to the next generation. I am now coaching high school students in Math and Computer Science.

Daniel Zingaro
Daniel Zingaro

Dr. Daniel Zingaro is an associate teaching professor of computer science and award-winning teacher at the University of Toronto. His main area of research is computer science education, where he studies how students learn (and sometimes don't learn) computer science material.

He may have a book obsession. He has written

Learn AI-assisted Python Programming with GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT (with Leo Porter, Manning, 2024). Learn programming in the generative AI era!

Algorithmic Thinking 2/e (No Starch Press, 2024). Learn hash tables, recursion, dynamic programming, trees, graphs, and all kinds of other algorithms and data structures stuff... competitive programming examples!

Learn to Code by Solving Problems (No Starch Press, 2021). Learn programming from scratch while solving competitive programming puzzles. Class tested and refined with hundreds of real students.

Table of Contents

    • Letter to the student
    • Letter to the parent
    • Letter to the trained professional
    • Acknowledgments
    Part I. Preliminaries
    • Chapter 1. USACO Bronze
      • 1.1. USACO Bronze FAQ
      • 1.2. Solving and Submitting a USACO Problem
      • 1.3. How to Work With This Book
      • 1.4. Summary
    • Chapter 2. Solving and Coding: Competition Specifics
      • 2.1. Reading and Analyzing a USACO Problem
      • 2.2. Coding Your Algorithm
      • 2.3. Debugging
      • 2.4. Using a Solution
      • 2.5. Summary
    • Chapter 3. Complexity Analysis
      • 3.1. Big O Notation
      • 3.2. Time complexity
      • 3.3. Space complexity
      • 3.4. Summary
    Part II. Core Techniques
    • Chapter 4. Modeling and Simulation
      • 4.1. Modeling a Dynamic Process
      • 4.2. Modeling a Static Process
      • 4.3. Modeling a Periodic Process
      • 4.4. Simulation Acceleration
      • 4.5. Summary
    • Chapter 5. Searching and Optimization
      • 5.1. Exhaustive Search
      • 5.2. Search Domain
      • 5.3. Domain Enumeration
      • 5.4. Search Acceleration
      • 5.5. Greedy Algorithms
      • 5.6. Summary
    • Chapter 6. Geometry Concepts
      • 6.1. One Dimension: Lines
      • 6.2. Two Dimensions: Rectangles
      • 6.3. Beyond Ninety Degrees
      • 6.4. Summary
    • Chapter 7. Strings
      • 7.1. Strings as Sequences of Characters
      • 7.2. Strings as Words
      • 7.3. Strings as Objects
      • 7.4. Summary
    • Chapter 8. Ad Hoc Problems and Advanced Techniques
      • 8.1. The Forward-Backward Technique
      • 8.2. Focusing on Significant Events
      • 8.3. Trees
      • 8.4. Dictionaries and Dynamic Arrays
      • 8.5. Summary
    Part III. Competition Day and Beyond
    • Chapter 9. Competition Day
      • 9.1. A Week Before
      • 9.2. The Competition
      • 9.3. Post Competition
      • 9.4. Summary
    • Chapter 10. Beyond USACO Bronze
      • 10.1. Silver and Beyond
      • 10.2. Solving your first USACO Silver Problem
      • 10.3. Summary
    Part IV. Appendix
    • Appendix A. List of All USACO Bronze Problems
      • USACO problems
      • Codeforces problems
      • CSES Problems
    • Appendix B. Practice Beyond USACO
      • B.1. Online Guides and Live Coaching
      • B.2. Online Practicing and Competing
      • B.3. BOOKS

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