Project Fuji
The Idea
Most people look at their LeetCode rating graph as just another statistic. It goes up, it goes down, and after a while it becomes something you only check after contests. I wanted mine to become something a little more memorable. Instead of letting the graph grow naturally, I decided to use it to slowly draw the outline of a mountain. Every contest adds another point, and together those points will gradually reveal the final shape. It’s a completely unnecessary project, which is exactly what makes it fun.
The Blueprint
The entire project starts with a mountain silhouette that acts as the target. Rather than focusing only on whether my rating increases, I’m also thinking about where the next point lands on the drawing. Every contest becomes another small brush stroke that helps reveal the mountain. The graph is no longer just tracking progress-it is becoming the artwork itself.
This isn’t my actual rating graph. It’s simply the shape I’m trying to recreate over time.
The Challenge
Unlike drawing on paper, rating changes are unpredictable. A great contest might skip over part of the outline, while a bad one could send the graph somewhere I never expected. I’ll probably have to adjust the design as I go and accept that the final result won’t be perfectly planned. In a way, that uncertainty is part of the project. The mountain is being drawn by contests, not by a pencil.
Why?
Competitive programming is already full of rankings, numbers, and optimization. I wanted to take one of those numbers and use it creatively instead. Everyone has a rating graph, but very few people try to turn it into something else. It doesn’t make me a better programmer, and it certainly isn’t the fastest way to gain rating, but it makes every contest feel like I’m adding another piece to a much larger picture.
The Journey
I’ll update this project after every contest and slowly watch the mountain appear. Maybe it will end up looking exactly like the original sketch, or maybe reality will reshape it into something completely different. Either way, I’ll have a rating graph that tells a story instead of simply recording a number.
Started in 2026. Still climbing.