Benefits of Competitive Programming
1.Makes you a desirable candidate to major companies
Participation in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC) is a great opportunity to be seen by Apple, Facebook, Google, IBM and many other authorities in the IT sphere. These major companies are constantly keeping track of these type of events and the participants to find talented employees. Why do they care about the ACM ICPC? Because it is the largest student programming contest in the world! Globally, this competition is considered the most prestigious and includes elite young programmers. In the past, companies such as Apple, AT&T and Microsoft have sponsored the contest. And, today, the contest’s main sponsor is IBM, who will often extend a job offer to the winners.
2.Makes you faster and more focused
Training and taking part in programming contests make you more a more disciplined, faster and focused coder. In the competition, you must solve problems in stressful situations and do it up against a deadline or you will lose. Taking part in competitive programming teaches you how to be more focused on the task and not only complete it quickly, but accurately. These skills are highly beneficial for any job, not just in coding. I strongly advise you to not only take this course if you are interested in participating in a programming contest, but also to learn how to train yourself to be a better coder. Before my team won the ACM ICPC, for three and a half years, we spent up to 8 hours a week solving problems. Practicing is everything!
3.Helps you solve complicated problems
During the ACM ICPC, you must solve difficult tasks, which are not for ordinary programmers. While you are training, you learn how to solve these out of the ordinary tasks. This helps prepare you for a job because you can adapt and solve various types of problems, in various types of situations.
4.Teaches you how to work in teams
This is a very important skill, as most jobs will require you at some point to work in a team. Competitive programming helps you learn how to effectively work together, as you must work with others on your team to complete the same task. You learn how to assess your team members’ strength and weaknesses and effectively divide responsibilities between each other. Additionally, each team has a leader, whether at the ACM ICPC or within an office. If you are in the management role within a team, then knowing how to motivate and organize your team members is key. For example, at the ACM ICPC, it is even important to arrange your team’s chairs in the right order to make sure you can work comfortably and effectively as a team.
5.Training and participation helps you prepare for a career in coding
It is not out of the ordinary to receive job offers from companies immediately after participating in a coding competition. Participating in a coding competition is something you should absolutely highlight on your resume. As previously stated, having experience in competitive programming shows employers you can work in a team, solve complicated problems, work in stressful situations, manage time and deadlines and minimize errors. It also shows you are a disciplined, focused and fast, which are all indispensable skills
LIST OF AWESOME LEARNING RESOURCES
Competitive Programming
- Solve code challenges to prepare for programming interviews:hakerRank
- Solve code challenges to help companies:hakerEarth
- Non-profit competitve programming platform:CodeChef
- Participate in code challenges and help solve real world problems:TopCoders
- Programming contests with online judging system:spoj
Web Development
- Free online coding tutorials on JavaScript, Ruby, Rails, CSS and more.:Learn Enough to Be Dangerous
- coding tutorials and challenges:FreeCodeCamp
- Video tutorials on popular JavaScript frameworks:EggHead
- Tutorials on HTML, CSS, JavaScript and more:W3Schools
- Provides Web Development Courses with a unique feature of live interaction with the instructor’s code:scrimba
Mobile Development
- Students can also apply for scholarship given by Google:Udacity Android Nanodegree
- Range of courses to help you build Android apps.:Android Developer Trining
- Tutorials about Android development.:Vogella
- Build your first iOS app :iOS Development
- Android tutorials blog.:Android Hive
DEVOPS
-Course dedicated to teach core software development and systems operation skills:DevOps Bootcamp
- Google course to prepare you for a job in IT support.:Google IT Support Course
Data Science
- Data science competitive platform:Kaggle
- Learn data science with your browser:DataQuest
- learn data science from a Big 4 accounting :DataQuest
- Departmental Elective-1(Network Architecture) :KPMG Data Science Virtual Internship
Open Source
- Start exploring open source projects and get involved in them:Up For Grabs
- Similar to 24PullRequests, gives swag for 4 accepted pull requests:HacktoberFest
Fellowships/Scholarships
- Link for Indian students :Developer Scholarship from Google
- A scholarship for women in technology by Qualcomm and IIE.:WeTech Qualcomm Global Scholarship
Programming Events
- A global program focused on bringing more student developers into open source software development:Google Summer of Code
- The International Collegiate Programming Contest is an algorithmic programming contest for college students:ACM-ICPC
- Annual programming contest organized by Facebook:Facebook HackerCup
- Annual 24 hour long team contest for IEEE members :IEEEXtreme
Benefits of Student/EDU Email ID
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