So I have been asked a few times how to master CP and DSA, instead of answering again personally, I thought I will write here how I worked on mastering [only to a slight extent] the above. Here I highlight what worked for me.

In a Nutshell: *There were no secrets, just solving problems - participating in contests - and upsolving unsolvable problems regularly. I had a group of like-minded friends which made it more fun!!*

Initially, my goal was to just improve my coding skills. What I did was the following:

• Hackerrank for few months [was very helpful in the beginning then I stopped] in the first year.
• SPOJ in the second year for a month only. [though continuously then again I stopped].

Finally, I got serious [stuff happened which made it more serious for me, also I was performing poorly in college practicals even in 3rd year! ].

• Started Codeforces in 3rd year [I liked it because of an active community and great tutorials for almost every problem ]
• My strategy: Don't Break the Chain. I solved at least one problem every day continuously without breaking the chain.
• I started before December 2016's winter break and kept at it and I became a specialist. I participated in almost every competition regularly.
• Then, I tried to solve at least one C, if I had less time did at least one A question daily.
• I solved a lot of C’s then when I got a little better lot of D’s, again every day.
• I kept participating in almost every competition and always upsolved, even if it meant understanding and copying code of others line by line.

Side Note: It took me 1.5 – 2 years of consistency to get where I am now.