Common Struggle Solving Codeforces Problems | Generated by AI
Question: Do many people complain that even solving one problem on Codeforces takes them hours or days? Do they often try their own solutions, look for answers/guides, and then retry?
Answer:
Yes, this is a very common experience and complaint in the Codeforces (and broader competitive programming) community.
Many users (especially beginners to intermediate level, roughly rating <1800–2000) frequently report spending hours or even multiple days on a single problem. It’s normal to get stuck, think for a long time, try different ideas (often failing), read editorials / solutions / hints / guides / other people’s code, understand the approach, implement it, debug, and sometimes retry similar problems later.
Here are some typical patterns from community discussions:
- Beginners often spend 20–60+ minutes even on easy problems (800–1200 rating), and several hours on medium ones.
- For harder problems (1600–2200+), it’s extremely common to see reports of 2–6+ hours on one problem, or coming back over days/weeks/months to finally solve it.
- Many people describe the cycle you mentioned: struggle alone → get stuck → read editorial/solution → learn the idea → implement (sometimes fail WA first) → understand better → move on or retry similar tasks.
- There are repeated blog posts and Reddit threads asking “How long should I stay on a problem before looking at the editorial?” with answers ranging from 30–40 minutes (for efficiency) to several hours (if you have promising ideas and want deep learning).
- Complaints often include feeling it’s a “waste of time” when stuck for 5–6 hours without progress, or fear of missing skill growth by reading solutions too early.
- Top performers solve faster, but even they sometimes spend extra time outside contests thinking about hard problems.
This is not a sign of being “bad” — it’s how most people improve in competitive programming. The key debate is usually about balance: spending too long on one problem can slow overall progress (fewer problems seen → slower pattern recognition), but giving up too quickly can miss important “aha” moments and deep understanding.
Common advice includes:
- Try independently for 30 min – 2 hours (depending on your level and how promising your ideas feel).
- Then read hints/editorial if stuck.
- After understanding, re-implement without looking (very important).
- Solve similar problems soon after to reinforce the idea.
In short: yes, many people experience and openly complain/discuss exactly this situation — it’s basically a rite of passage in Codeforces.
References:
- https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/112965
- https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/60810
- https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/118644
- https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/68849
- https://www.reddit.com/r/codeforces/comments/ywycqn/how_much_time_should_one_spend_on_solving_one