Competitive Programmer's Handbook (2018) [pdf]

(cses.fi)

91 points | by vinhnx 2 days ago

6 comments

  • ExciteByte 0 minutes ago
    He has a more polished version of this book:

    https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-61794-2

    Additionally, there is a nice set of problems that go along with the book:

    https://cses.fi/problemset/

  • dang 2 hours ago
    Related. Others?

    Competitive Programmer's Handbook (2017) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17605395 - July 2018 (14 comments)

    Competitive Programmer's Handbook (2017) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16952222 - April 2018 (121 comments)

    A Competitive Programmer's Handbook - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14115826 - April 2017 (157 comments)

    Competitive programmers handbook - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13762408 - March 2017 (2 comments)

  • xendo 3 hours ago
    This one is quite difficult, it sacrifices some readability for cleverness and conciseness. I find Algorithmic Thinking by Zingaro much more approachable but almost as dense.
    • gwbas1c 1 hour ago
      I think if you always follow the same abbreviations, they'll be readable to you.

      Remember, these are throwaway programs; not something that you need to worry about someone else maintaining, or something you need to worry about opening up 5 years later.

  • lifeisloving 37 minutes ago
    Ive been doing codeforces, Rosalind, codewars and leetcode casually in my spare time to detox from heavy daily agent use.

    Ive been relearning a ton that either over-reliance on llms caused me to forget, or just lost due to time.

    Its been extremely fun. I really missed the feeling of thinking really hard and arriving at a solution.

    I hope we dont lose this desire as a species.

  • Keegs 3 hours ago
    I’m a big fan of this book. It’s an equally great algorithms reference and way to prep for coding interviews. I haven’t had one in a while but doubt they’ve changed too much in the last half decade.
    • BeetleB 1 hour ago
      I read this book to prepare for coding interviews. In retrospect, it really didn't help with that goal.

      I did, nevertheless, learn quite a bit from it. Would recommend to everyone. It's well written.

  • dominotw 3 hours ago
    is leetcode still a thing in interviews. I personally want it to be. We need to start gatekeeping this profession hard ( this is a hard 180 from my stance for last 2 decades). Also regret contributing and being pro opensource.

    Closedsource, credentialism and gatekeeping is my new stance.

    • moronicles 2 hours ago
      Who exactly is it that will be doing the gatekeeping? I have a hard time imagining companies caring much about competitive coding scores, and I’ve certainly never heard of layoffs being decided based on LeetCode performance.
      • dominotw 20 minutes ago
        > layoffs being decided based on LeetCode performance.

        thats not what gatekeeping is

    • jbs789 1 hour ago
      Two decades learning from others, then close the gate. Can’t ding you for inconsistency though. Your contribution to this discussion is consistent with your new ethos. Good luck with your new approach to the world.
    • mellosouls 2 hours ago
      We can call it Coding Canutism.
    • bitwize 2 hours ago
      Closed source will do squat unless you protect your binaries with some sort of secure enclave encryption scheme. AI can reverse engineer your binaries and deliver a copyright-laundered version in hours or days.
    • naagi 3 hours ago
      shortsighted and a bit late anyway
    • simianwords 2 hours ago
      is this an excellent LARP bait or someone with these sincere views?
    • robotpepi 3 hours ago
      what?