What is the USACO?
The USA Computing Olympiad is a national programming competition that occurs four times a year, with December, January, February, and US Open (March) contests. The regular contests are 4 hours long, and the US Open is 5 hours long. Each contest contains three problems. Solutions are evaluated and scored against a set of predetermined test cases. Scoring is out of 1000 points, with each problem being weighted equally (~333 points). There are four divisions of contests: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. After each contest, students who meet the contest-dependent cutoff for promotion will compete in the next division for future contests.
Why USACO?
Some of the benefits:
- International recognition for the ability to solve programming problems.
- Makes entry easier to colleges that specialize in Computer Science.
- Solve hard problems in Computer Science which helps in creating your own startup company or work for a Big Top Tech company (like MAANG – Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) or other tech companies.
- Helps build a Network which will always be helpful at every stage of your career. Benefits of a great network cannot be over-emphasized.
- Travel to different parts of world and participate in other computing contests.
How can BitSpace Education Help You?
Experienced teachers: our teachers have been teaching Data Structures and Algorithms for The Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) and the students have obtained great scores in both the Junior and Senior levels. In comparison, USACO and CCC have very similar requirements in terms of the topics that the contestants need to be aware of.
Our Approach: we have a structured approach in helping students understand the topics, solve problems and help them gain experience and expertise.
How do students participate in a USACO contest?
Register for a (free) account on usaco.org, then wait until the four-day contest window starts. When the contest window begins, the USACO homepage will update with instructions on how to participate.
How are USACO contests scored?
USACO contests are scored out of 1000 points. Each problem is worth 1000/3=333.333… points. When a solution to a problem is submitted, it is run against a number of test cases (see the second link above for details). All test cases for a problem (typically 10-30) are weighted equally, except the sample test case(s), which do not count toward your score. Inputs and outputs for test cases other than the sample test cases are not visible during the contest.
How to start and work upwards from Bronze?
All contestants start in the Bronze division. At the end of the contest, a “cutoff score” for each division is determined based on the difficulty of the contest. If your score is at least the cutoff score for your division, then you get permanently promoted to the next division. Historically, the cutoff score has always been a multiple of 50 points in the range 600…850 (typically 750).
If you get a perfect score during the contest (i.e., you fully solve all three problems), then you get an in-contest promotion, where you immediately get promoted to the next division. You can start the next division’s contest whenever you want during the contest window; your four- or five-hour timer resets when you start the contest.
In essence, if you start Bronze on day 1 and get a perfect score, you can progress to Silver immediately and keep going up until Platinum (which is the hardest level because it goes from Bronze ➝ Silver ➝ Gold ➝ Platinum).
What are the topics covered in Bronze?
Getting Started | Time Complexity Introduction to Data Structures Simulation Rectangle Geometry |
Complete Search | Basics of Complete Search Complete Search with Recursion |
Sorting & Sets | Introduction to Sorting (Optional) Introduction to Sets & Maps |
Additional | Ad Hoc Problems Introduction to Greedy Algorithms Introduction to Graphs |
What are the topics covered in Silver?
Prefix Sums | Introduction to Prefix Sums More on Prefix Sums |
Sorting & Searching | Custom Comparators and Coordinate Compression Two Pointers More Operations on Sorted Sets (Optional) C++ Sets with Custom Comparators Greedy Algorithms with Sorting Binary Search |
Graphs | Graph Traversal Flood Fill Introduction to Tree Algorithms Introduction to Functional Graphs (DAGs – Directed Acyclic Graphs with exactly one outgoing edge) |
Additional Topics | Introduction to Bitwise Operators |
What are the topics covered in Gold?
Math | Divisibility Modular Arithmetic Combinatorics |
Dynamic Programming (DP) | Introduction to DP Knapsack DP Paths on Grids Longest Increasing Subsequence Bitmask DP Range DP Digit DP |
Graphs | Shortest Paths with Unweighted Edges Disjoint Set Union Topological Sort Shortest Paths with Non-Negative Edge Weights Minimum Spanning Trees |
Data Structures | Stacks Sliding Window Point Update Range Sum |
Trees | Euler Tour Technique DP on Trees – Introduction DP on Trees – Solving For All Roots |
Additional Topics | String Hashing Hashmaps Meet in The Middle |
What are the topics covered in Platinum?
Range Queries | Introduction to Segment/Fenwick Tree More Applications of Segment Tree Range Queries with Sweep Line Range Update Range Query Sparse Segment Trees 2D Range Queries Divide & Conquer – SRQ Square Root Decomposition |
Trees | Binary Jumping Small to Large Margin Heavy-Light Decomposition Centroid Decomposition |
Geometry | Geometry Primitives Swee Line Convex Hull Convex Hull Trick |
Miscellaneous | Matrix Exponentiation Bitsets Divide & Conquer – DP Minimum Spanning Trees |
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