Third time I participated in SRM. The previous time my rank score badly from 977 to something around 650 today nothing great. I was able to solve the first question very quickly spent around 20 minutes in second one all due to poor pratice and thinking. The third problem was an unlucky incidence, I just finished it when the time was over, it did pass all the test but ah it doesn't matter.
I am learning from Topcoder competitions how important it is to save every second, I could have been in much better place had i submitted 3rd question just 30 seconds or so earlier.
When I see codes written by other I feel how my coding sucks. I didn't know how to use iterators or map and learnt them during the contest, how pathetic? I had to refer to html documentation of STL on net for both of them and ofcourse every second wasted there costed me.
Other thing I have learnt over time is to appreciate the beauty of JAVA, any code in topcoder competitions in JAVA looked more cleaner and efficient than similar ones in C++. String mainpulation in JAVA simply rocks. I realize the importance of being perfect in whatever u know. I have partial knowledge of JAVA and partial of C++, so finding bugs in others code during the challenge phase doesn't work well either. Not sucessful as yet.
Final Conclusion Practice make man perfect!
Thats rite! Practice practice practice!
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