Transition from CP to TCS (Theoretical Computer Science) Research

Hello, Codeforces Community!

Since my middle school days, I've been deeply involved in Olympiad Informatics, which sparked my passion for algorithms and data structures. Now, as a first-year computer science undergraduate, my ambition is to pursue a career in theoretical computer science (TCS) research.

I would greatly appreciate any advice from those currently engaged in TCS or combinatorial optimization research.

• 15 hours ago, # ^ | ← Rev. 2 →   +8 How smart (in terms of raw intellect/mathematical ability, which I think correlate highly positively with CF rating) do you think one needs to generally be to do meaningful research? I often feel like research in computer science is something I would find extremely enjoyable and want to pursue. But then I remind myself that I am vastly cognitively inferior to so many people in the same field (for example chinese high-school CPers) who could do anything I could do, in a better manner and in less time.

  • 5 hours ago, # ^ | Useless question. Does the existence of someone smarter than you mean than you shouldn't do anything meaningful with your life? If you can build the math background you need to understand the problems and techniques people use in TCS, you can probably make a dent in something.

    • 5 hours ago, # ^ | Useless question. Does the existence of someone smarter than you mean than you shouldn't do anything meaningful with your life? Useless response. Yes.

      • 4 hours ago, # ^ |

• 19 minutes ago, # ^ | almost all of the classical algorithms research is kinda "done" My experience was the exact opposite. I made some minor progress towards a somewhat-obscure open problem and a friend made improvements on some open problems in stuff very adjacent to classical algorithms. It's very similar to competitive programming. Probably also take a look at quantum My experience was also the exact opposite here. It was impossibly difficult for me (skill issue perhaps) and radically different from competitive programming. I met with people who worked on quantum computing for years in PhD and told me it's not going anywhere in a few decades. I recently learned no factorization of any number larger than 21 has been carried out with an algorithm scalable to modern encryption on a quantum computer, and even that was a gimmick (though recently there was some factorization of a 48-bit number with an algorithm that does not scale). To me it seems that 12 years have passed since 21 got factored and nothing has happened. It all just sounds like fake news after seeing "quantum computers are going to break encryption in 10 years" since I was in middle school.