Language isn't important. You start by solving some problems in whatever language you know. http://acm.timus.ru/Default.aspx?locale=en http://acm.timus.ru/Defa

Language isn't important. You start by solving some problems in whatever language you know. http://acm.timus.ru/Default.aspx?locale=en http://acm.timus.ru/Default.aspx?locale=en -- not a bad place to start Good books include monographies about algorithms. In Russia, the most popular books on the subject are: * Introduction to Algorithms (Cormen) * Algorithms and Data Structures (Wirth) * Algorithms [in C++] (Sedgewick) Don Knuth also has remarkable works but they're somewhat more into proofs and math.