ALT "It's often not hard to come up with a brute-force solution that works but is too slow. From there, start thinking about how to optimize it -for example, for a dynamic programming approach, can you reduce the number of states, or the complexity of the state transition? If none of these ideas pan out, perhaps there's an important property of the input that you've yet to utilize, or a fundamentally new perspective (geometric, randomized, etc.) is needed." - Phil Sun, Software Engineer.

ALT "Take part in contests consistently. The time-boundness of a contest helps you get better at quickly implementing solutions and gets you acquainted with solving problems under pressure. The rank and rating associated with contests are a bonus, to motivate you further." - Sreeramji K S, Software Engineer.

ALT "Using meaningful identifiers can help you read and debug your own code. Use descriptive variable names, break down your logic into functions, and encapsulate complex data structures into classes." - Saksham Aggarwal, Software engineer.

ALT "1. Be sure to master at least one language. It will help you code faster and avoid obvious bugs. 2. Read the question carefully. Most bugs are a result of missing details in the problem statement. 3. Remember to go through the FAQ prior to the round. There is valuable information on error codes and code snippets in there.” - Karim Fatehi, Engineering Manager.

ALT "Never stop learning new things! When you get bashed in a contest, try a problem for so long but can't figure it out, and look into the solution after the contest with frustration — these are the moments when you truly improve yourself. This is one of the factors that differentiates one contestant from another — how quickly you overcome the disappointment after a bad contest and master the algorithms or tricks that were necessary for the problems there." - Kazi Zubaer, Software engineer.