OUR MENTORSHIP

Lessons with Recursive Dragon

Customize your experience by working live with a mentor from our award winning team!

NEW

25% off your first 3 lessons

Private and Group Lessons

Lessons at Recursive Dragon are designed around two fundamental tenets.

  1. Every student has a different level of coding and problem-solving experience, which steadily improves over time.

  2. The only way to improve at algorithmic programming is by consistently solving problems and learning from them.

After assessing the student's current programming experience, our team will develop a customized syllabus based around the student's needs. The student will then work with the same mentor throughout their entire journey, potentially from USACO Bronze all the way up to USACO Platinum. Lessons will consist of a combination of lecturing and active problem solving, where the student and mentor will work together to craft a solution. We will also assign readings and homework to keep the student engaged outside of scheduled lesson times.

Our pricing


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ABOUT USACO

The USA Computing Olympiad

Recursive Dragon was originally founded with a mission to help prepare students for the USA Computing Olympiad: the premier high school algorithmic programming competition. Through lessons at Recursive Dragon, your student will learn from our team of elite competitive programmers, and will take an important step on the journey towards mastery of data structures and algorithms!



USACO DIVISIONS

Work with our team from Bronze up to Platinum!



Bronze (8057 students)

At the bronze level, students build on their programming fundamentals, designing relatively simple algorithms to solve various problems. Students are exposed to fundamental techniques like sorting and recursion.

Silver (2216 students)

At the silver level, students begin learning real-world data structures and algorithms. Students learn how to process data using sets, efficiently find items via binary search, and traverse graphs via Depth First Search.

Gold (721 students)

At the gold level, problems often require multiple steps combined with key deductions. Students learn data structures like Fenwick Trees, Disjoint Set Unions, and more, along with famous algorithms like Dijkstra's Algorithm.

Platinum (247 students)

At the platinum level, problems become extremely challenging, as the full array of techniques and algorithms used in competitive programming can appear. The top 24 contestants are invited to the USA National Training camp.




Frequently Asked Questions


  • Can you guarantee that my student reaches the USACO Platinum division?

    While personalized mentorship is a great asset, and helps maximize the chances of success, ultimately your student will need to have a passion for the material. Additionally, your student must have the perserverance to spend (at minimum) the hundreds of hours required to reach the Platinum division. Some students spend years and never reach the Platinum division, while others can attain it in about 1-2 years.

  • For private lessons: can I pick my mentor?

    Yes! We are happy to match your student with anyone from our team. Note that sometimes not all of our mentors are available to take on new students, as most are still students themselves.

  • For group lessons: can I pick my group?

    Yes! We encourage your student to connect with his local friends and schoolmates, and do group lessons with Recursive Dragon together. Practicing USACO together can make it fun, as well as improve the efficiency of studying.