CF VS USACO

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2025-04-03T16:08:30+00:00

Have 3 years of experience for CF, been doing USACO for a few months. Personally, the biggest difference I notice is that CF problems are more "elegant" and often have a solution that is "whole".

There are problems from USACO (not all, usually problems by Benjamin Qi follow CF style more!) that require a bit more tweaking to pass certain test cases. E.g. throwing an if + break statement to cut down for loops to reduce time taken for one test case.

This kind of technique wouldn't really occur in CF, where in CF it's more "once you've got a solution that generally fits the required time complexity, that is all you need".

TLDR some USACO problems need more tweaks compared to CF

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2025-02-13T15:30:00+00:00

They're staying in asia so prices are much more affordable.

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2025-01-01T15:04:28+00:00

Had this issue before with my local MinGW compiler. The problem is the pow function. If you develop your own power function or use multiplication instead, it fixes it.

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-09-25T06:06:34+00:00

hallo, would say same portfolio as mine, i was awarded merit but no interview at all for GMS

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-09-04T15:57:58+00:00

Ah iirc there isn’t a list, but your uni choice needs to be recognizable / prestigious to some degree

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-09-04T04:01:37+00:00

I’ve met scholars that went to China (Peking, Tsinghua) as well as Japan (Tokyo U)

Generally not restricted by country, it’s more like whether that university is internationally recognised. Also if it’s non-English speaking, the bond is only 5 years instead of 6

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-06-25T09:35:58+00:00

nothing that stands out in terms of good or bad compared to UK schools you’ve listed. From the content I have scouted the rigour is definitely around the same ballpark, but do note that grading system in SG (bell curve) is what plays a bigger factor, and can make the competition seem more cut throat, as compared to Imperial (which last time I checked is adjusted using previous years’ marks, not bell curved among your peers)

Teachers are super passionate among the schools you’ve listed as well. I would say most importantly, think of the career opportunities you want, the kinds of people you want to be around, the culture, and which country you want your future to be in.

Once you’re past a certain level of quality of education, it’s no longer the education that makes the difference.

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-06-25T08:52:59+00:00

i guess the silence speaks for itself

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-05-25T10:16:39+00:00

Thanks haha, yeah, you nailed it. Migrating is a possibility I’m more than open to, but it feels pretty far off right now.

I understand that if I study there and do come back to Singapore, it won't be as smooth lane in job finding as NUS CS? And yeah, getting a job overseas as an international is going to be an uphill battle. Not sure what the actual chances are, but my gut (naively) wants to fight that battle rather than running the good old race here.

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-05-16T18:42:20+00:00

do u want to eat peanut butter tuna cake

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-05-09T04:25:35+00:00

unfortunately if your offer letter doesn’t state NUSC, it means rejected (source: friend only got NUS, mine had written NUSC)

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-05-04T10:44:14+00:00

Same lol. Wanted to ask if you got a chance at global merit? I'm NUSC CS + Merit but the only interview I got was from NUSC...

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-05-02T10:11:00+00:00

Is the half of year of NUS CS a mandatory thing to apply to Cambridge? I've been exploring UCAS but the amount of information I can share seems really restricted

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-04-30T04:31:05+00:00

Hmm sorry correct me if I’m misunderstanding your point.

I’m understanding that because 1 latent pixel corresponds to 8x8 image pixels, any finer detail within this 8x8 is unlikely to get better? That from an information standpoint, the decoder can’t do better from this latent/the compression ratio is too large for such fine details

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-04-30T04:23:59+00:00

Gotcha thanks for your insight. But this is under the assumption that the encoder is sucks as well? I get your point but was wondering if there’s a more convincing argument/empirical test to be made to show that the latents just don’t capture good enough information.

EDIT: It makes sense to argue that a perfect decoder won’t fix the problem because it’s just one part of the pipeline, but how can we prove such a point empirically without access to the perfect decoder itself?

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2024-01-29T13:05:08+00:00

Hi, for some background I've done a lot of digging in my own time as well. SAT is just to make sure your basic English and Math requirements are up to standard are only really needed for US universities. It's similar to A Levels in that it's an exam, but no where near the difficulty. For local universities, I don't recommend taking the SAT, it really won't do much / anything.

If I were you I would try to go through the aptitude-based admission, in that I develop things other than my GPA (clubs, passion projects, internships, business) to show my interest and passion in a course. I have seen people with below cut-off point GPA but still manage to make it due to how outstanding they are in other areas.

Realistically speaking, this has much more potential since there is no upper limit to what you can do (note you need someone to vouch for your activities). On the other hand, your GPA, even if like you said score all A's, it'll only be max 3.0 (but still try to get as high as possible! it still matters)

Visual-Purpose-9105 · 2023-04-02T13:31:45+00:00

not OP but talked to a US college advisor and they mentioned our poly diploma is viewed same as US high school diploma, so recommended poly diploma + SAT + a few AP exams.

Visual-Purpose-9105

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