https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog daily 0.75 2026-06-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/1597407292725-EYL00RGYIZFYGQHJROPB/1_HClbbUTEEzekU31ae3ZGnA.png Blog https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-observations monthly 0.5 2024-02-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/8eb680fe-c32b-4447-b174-8bf677e9dee8/observation.png Blog - Observations: How to make them quickly and use them effectively  - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/8c51ea78-415a-46d7-9e1b-f19bd5248c94/time+complexity.jpg Blog - Observations: How to make them quickly and use them effectively  - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/016af5fd-2c34-42cd-8790-7f5074efcc1f/best+case+worst+case.jpg Blog - Observations: How to make them quickly and use them effectively  - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/8d5fff54-7c69-425b-90fd-d1acb94b22a3/starting+point.jpg Blog - Observations: How to make them quickly and use them effectively  - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-gold monthly 0.5 2026-06-29 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-codeforces monthly 0.5 2023-11-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/a84036fe-8acf-4221-b392-15775277e043/benq.jpg Blog - A Comprehensive Guide on Using Codeforces To Practice For USACO - Make it stand out Here are the different titles as shown on Benjamin Qi’s rating graph. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/533db71e-9aca-4cb0-97aa-ea6a1938c525/example+of+tags+and+difficulty.png Blog - A Comprehensive Guide on Using Codeforces To Practice For USACO - Make it stand out Here is an example of a problem on the Problemset page. Under the problem name are tags such as “dp”, “greedy”, “math”, etc, and to the right, there is a number indicating difficulty. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/e203f45e-7b17-4d4f-ae44-4ca508d63856/calender.png Blog - A Comprehensive Guide on Using Codeforces To Practice For USACO - Make it stand out To check for upcoming contests, you can either go to the contests tab, or check the Codeforces calender. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/47bdfa5e-e539-49dc-b6a8-7554a705cc37/filter.png Blog - A Comprehensive Guide on Using Codeforces To Practice For USACO - Make it stand out For example, if you are a silver competitor wanting to practice binary search, you might filter 1800 difficulty binary search problems as shown. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/10f12c98-e480-4429-a65c-31072459b4a7/virtual.png Blog - A Comprehensive Guide on Using Codeforces To Practice For USACO - Make it stand out This is what the virtual participating page will look like. Pick a time where you will be ready to start the virtual contest (most likely within the next 10 minutes), and click “virtual participation”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/376e7768-7ed6-45dc-8d57-49f50b878734/custom+.png Blog - A Comprehensive Guide on Using Codeforces To Practice For USACO - Make it stand out Codeforces’ built-in IDE https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/starting-usaco monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/find-usaco-time monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-journey monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/064cec72-678a-4f08-8732-50c84b16716c/journey.png Blog - How do USACO and Competitive Programming Fit Into Your Journey? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/3f9d1113-6d1d-47fd-9787-6c2dbf59d4d3/DALL%C2%B7E+2023-11-18+16.52.27+-+An+enhanced+allegorical+representation+of+a+person%27s+journey+through+distinct+achievement+tiers.+The+image+shows+a+young+Black+male+athlete+climbing+a.png Blog - How do USACO and Competitive Programming Fit Into Your Journey? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/9015ec80-8839-430a-9b3c-92152ab477a0/DALL%C2%B7E+2023-11-18+16.54.19+-+A+creative+depiction+of+a+high+school+student+balancing+a+busy+schedule+with+a+passion+for+competitive+programming+and+computer+science.+The+image+sho.png Blog - How do USACO and Competitive Programming Fit Into Your Journey? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/8d114585-e63d-4f6a-9de6-4b1d1a3289c5/DALL%C2%B7E+2023-11-18+16.56.22+-+A+scene+of+a+person+successfully+acing+a+programming+interview.+The+image+shows+a+confident+Middle-Eastern+male+seated+in+a+modern+office%2C+in+front+of.png Blog - How do USACO and Competitive Programming Fit Into Your Journey? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/7b4352a1-9455-4357-879f-fff1548cffb5/DALL%C2%B7E+2023-11-18+17.00.03+-+A+visual+metaphor+for+advanced+problem-solving+skills+developed+through+competitive+programming%2C+without+any+text+elements.+The+scene+depicts+a+young+.png Blog - How do USACO and Competitive Programming Fit Into Your Journey? - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-practice-effectively monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-silver monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-camper-grace-cai-interview monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-motivation monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/ec224b2a-b424-4aee-a2ac-c49148f9ae43/time+flies.jpg Blog - How to Gain and Maintain Motivation When Practicing for USACO - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/43c2ccf8-b6f4-45ca-90a4-4788ff571917/cf+virtual.png Blog - How to Gain and Maintain Motivation When Practicing for USACO - Make it stand out To participate in a virtual contest on Codeforces, click on the “Virtual Participation”, choose a time, and get started! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/a3f132e3-623f-4754-af6a-5e001fd7121c/TLE+bot.png Blog - How to Gain and Maintain Motivation When Practicing for USACO - Make it stand out An example of how to use the TLE bot’s virtual rating system. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/14feab9a-329a-4b39-81cb-07a542fff860/FIltering+for+difficulty.png Blog - How to Gain and Maintain Motivation When Practicing for USACO - Make it stand out On the right side of Codeforces’ Problemset tab, you can filter problems for difficulty. A common strategy is to find a difficulty that is just above your skill level, and once you master it, move up in difficulty. https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/contest-strategy monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/4d29199d-7f25-4eb4-ad1e-03d688475222/Debugger+line+15.png Blog - "I could have gotten that if I just had more time", How to get those points! - Make it stand out Here, you can see that we define a breakpoint in line 15 by hovering to the left of the line number. In other IDEs, this may differ, but in general clicking around the line number will put a red dot, indicating a breakpoint. The purpose of this breakpoint in line 15 is to check that the input has been properly read into our “points” array. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/544f6ff1-e5ce-494f-9002-aec52ff0158a/run+debug.png Blog - "I could have gotten that if I just had more time", How to get those points! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/b30e625f-62b5-4c26-8d08-5f84ae14da4d/in+debugger.png Blog - "I could have gotten that if I just had more time", How to get those points! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/670fa0e1-76dc-4d5f-b382-1e326f818f26/step+menu.png Blog - "I could have gotten that if I just had more time", How to get those points! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/ae9626a0-79f5-4cce-9c62-21e2b1597be9/conditional+breakpoint.png Blog - "I could have gotten that if I just had more time", How to get those points! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/dcc8233e-df09-45da-80ac-9ed13b7abe3e/expression+conditional+breakpt.png Blog - "I could have gotten that if I just had more time", How to get those points! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-finalist-nathan-wang-interview monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-camp monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/ace-usaco-bronze monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-saving-time monthly 0.5 2023-11-28 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-common-mistakes monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-implement-faster monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://www.vplanetcoding.com/blog/usaco-expectations monthly 0.5 2024-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/f46d60ab-3218-4de3-b874-c2d223a71638/IMG_9193C113257D-1.jpeg Blog - USACO: Closing the Gap Between Expectations with Reality - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a076df2268b966170809a2c/f971c66c-1757-428a-964a-a3d8a4ba0e59/IMG_6E26E2BB68A8-1.jpeg Blog - USACO: Closing the Gap Between Expectations with Reality - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.