USACO Guide

A free collection of curated, high-quality resources to take you from Bronze to Platinum and beyond.

Learn USACO. Efficiently.

Stop wasting time searching for problems and tutorials. The USACO Guide provides a comprehensive, organized roadmap carefully designed and crafted for USACO contestants – available to everyone, for free.

Curated Resources

Learn new topics from a vetted list of high-quality resources. If one resource doesn't click, look at another!

Extensive Problemsets

Practice each topic with extensive problemsets and solutions covering a wide range of difficulties.

Progress Tracking

Use our progress-tracking tools to track your progress in the Guide and stay motivated.

Help when you need it

Get help from other community members in the USACO Forum.View Forum →

Trusted by thousands

This guide is written by top USACO contestants, including two-time IOI winner and USACO Problemsetter Benjamin Qi.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the USACO?

USACO stands for the USA Computing Olympiad. Check out the USACO FAQ Page for more information.

Is this an official syllabus?

No, USACO does not have an official syllabus. This guide merely lists topics that have historically appeared in USACO contests; it makes no guarantees about the topics in future USACO contests.

How do I report a problem or ask a question?

If you encounter an issue while using the guide (website bug, typo, broken link, unclear explanation, etc), use the "Contact Us" button. Alternatively, email us at usacoguide@gmail.com.

I'm looking for classes, club curriculum...

Check out the Competitive Programming Initiative!

Is this guide for non-USACO competitive programmers?

Of course! While we structure our content around USACO, feel free to use this guide even if you don't do USACO. You will still learn a lot from it!

How can I get help?

If you get stuck, head over to the USACO Forum for help.

How can I contribute?

To learn more about contributing, please visit this page. We appreciate any and all contributions!

Is this open source?

Yes! Check out our GitHub Repository.

Contributors

By the Community, for the Community.

Comprised of USACO Finalists and top USACO competitors, our team is committed to increasing participation in competitive programming.

  • Nathan Wang

  • Darren Yao

  • Benjamin Qi

  • Michael Cao

  • Maggie Liu

  • Melody Yu

  • Daniel Guan

  • Bing-Dong Liu

  • Harry Wang

  • Varun Ragunath

  • Amy Chang

  • Evan Zhao

  • Andi Qu

  • Andrew Wang

  • Nathan Chen

  • Siyong Huang

  • Kevin Sheng

  • Tatha Pandey

  • Justin Ji

  • Tianqin Meng

  • Jesse Choe

  • Ryan Chou

  • Daniel Zhu

  • Justin Huang

  • Trisha Sabadra

  • Aakash Gokhale

  • Alex Du

  • Alex Wang

  • Andrew Xu

  • Chongtian Ma

  • Mihnea Brebenel

Former Team Members

  • Arpan Banerjee

  • Jay Fu

  • Neo Wang

  • Nikhil Chatterjee

  • Albert Zhu

  • Amogha Pokkulandra

  • Atharv Jain

  • David Li

  • David Zhang

  • Dustin Miao

  • Faris Raza

  • Jeffrey Meng

  • Juheon Rhee

  • Nathan Gong

  • Pranav Jadhav

  • Vikas Thoutam

  • Aadit Ambadkar

  • Adham Ibrahim

  • Aditya Gupta

  • Advay Bajpai

  • Akshar Yeccherla

  • Albert Jiang

  • Alex Chen

  • Arnan Bawa

  • Arnav Adhikari

  • Ben Dodge

  • Chuyang Wang

  • Daniel Ge

  • Eric Xu

  • Frank Xiao

  • Harsh Akunuri

  • Ian Zhang

  • Jaiman Pandya

  • Jason Antwi-Appah

  • Jeffrey Zhang

  • John Tian

  • Jonathan Paulson

  • Lokesh Pampatti

  • Mithil Srungarapu

  • Mrinall Umasudhan

  • Nathan Zhang

  • Nikita Gorshkov

  • Oscar Rendón

  • Paul Chen

  • Riley Bonner

  • Shikhar Ahuja

  • Sofia Yang

  • Stanley Zhao

  • Vidith Madhu

  • Vivian Han

  • Yifan Ma

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