Struggling with participation on Clash of Code

Hi everyone,
Hopefully I’m writing this in the correct part of CodinGame. If not, please direct me to the right one.

I’m feeling overwhelmed. Let me explain.

I’m a TOTAL beginner who knows only conditions and some indexing rules in Python3 (self-taught). When I participated in a clash of code I felt like I’m not good enough to even participate due to my lack of programming knowledge.

Did anyone else faced the same problem when joining CodinGame? Please, share your experience.
How did you improve your coding skills? I don’t even know where to start… :confounded:
Is it good idea to first take a python course and then start participating on CodinGame? Share your resources :slightly_smiling_face:

CoC does not suit a total beginner. You need more than a few minutes to think and learn.
Try doing easy Puzzles first.
Onboarding, Descent, Thor, Temperatures, ASCII Art, Horse-racing…

Take a tutorial course and solving puzzle problems do not conflict. You can do both at the same time.

5 Likes

Honestly speaking, if you cannot finish any of the simple puzzles with unlimited time as you wish, you are less than able to finish any CoC competition within the several minutes allowed.

Beginners have to learn it step-by-step. Each step will take a long time but it will become faster later.

Learn from the easiest first. Exercise writing a for-loop in Descent. Repeat doing the same exercise until you can type a correct for-loop and solve the problem in a few minutes.

When you can do it, you have made progress.

2 Likes

An equally important tips for learners.
For most puzzles there are more than one way to solve it.
When you can confidently solve Descent, study how other coders were solving it. There could be at least a few alternative approaches you might not have thought of.

Learn from your peer.

You can repeat doing the same puzzle but force yourself to use better approaches, to transform and advance yourself.

1 Like