What are some good competitive problems for a programming contest?

How should I go for competitive programming? Is my approach correct?

• I'm a first year CSE student in Dhaka. My university has no record in any regional / local contest. So, for sure, I am not gonna have any good team-mate. I started my programming career in 2010 and took part in BdIO ' 12 . And then, I didn't have any PC and I don't think I could write code more than 5 times in PC. But fortunately I got a PC for a few hours before the contest. I solved a string-related problem. It was the easiest problem though, I became very happy as I was scared of such problems and did never solve any problem like that. Anyway, Now in 2014 , I am studying on my Dreamy subject, CSE. And for your convenience, let me make it a bit clearer so that you can help me.  I am to support my family , so I remain busy all day long. I get 3-4 hours at night, that can be used to do some programming . But I can OR I will try to make some extra time . WHAT I need, I want to be a very very GOOD programmer. I wanna achieve something in Competitive Programming.  Now, I have started from the sketch. Possibly I will be practicing till my death, but I have set up a GOAL. I think , anything without a goal, can't be done successfully. So, my Temporary Goal is for 1 YEAR. Have a look what I have planned: Step 01:  Ad-Hoc [ at least 50 ] [ I have solved some on USACO,  uVa, lightOJ, Spoj, Timus etc. ] . This is why, I think this will increase my thinkin' power . And some necessary OPERATIONs like prime-number, GCD, LCM,  char-to-int, int-to-char, pattern matching, easy searching, few more mathematical operations , and easy Data Structure related stuff will be known to me. And these may help me solve harder problems. Step 02: After that, I will keep ad-hoc programming and along with that I will start to learn Algorithm on Daily OR  Weekly basis. First I will learn an Algo, then solve a simple problem and then I will go to OnlineJudges  and find out some tougher problems, at least 5-6 for a single Algo. N.B.: I read "Introduction to Algorithms"- MIT press, and some other online resources like topCoder and so on.... Step 03: And then, if I realize that I have some good knowledge on Competitive Programming, I will start solving Regional Problems of Previous Years. And then, if I can do well in this step, I will go for World Finals' Problem set. -------------------------- Maybe my dream to world final is quite impossible.. But why should I stay back...? Am I on the right track? Is it realistic ? Do I need to change my plan...? Please let me know... [Thanks to Nafis Sadique & ImtiazShakil bro.... You both advised  me so many things.. But in my questions to you, I didn't tell everything at length. Here, I again want your kind suggestion ] And sorry for my faulty English :p

• Answer:

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