The difficulty of the first prize of NOIp is really hard to say. My personal opinion is that it is much easier than Olympiad and Olympiad! But it takes considerable effort and talent.
As for the walk of the senior high school entrance examination, it's hard to say because the regulations in each city are different.
2. Informatics Olympics focuses on programming, which is mathematics in plain English!
To get a problem, first establish a mathematical model, then apply the existing algorithm (NOIp level), and then realize it on the computer, and constantly debug and optimize it. Ok, next question. ...
You can't do it without good logical ability. What you said about hardware knowledge is actually very unimportant (useful in the preliminary round)
Of course you can't read it, because you don't know grammar yet!
First of all, it is strongly recommended to learn Pascal, because it is very simple. C and C++ are too difficult.
Secondly, if you buy a yellow book (actually Pascal Programming (Second Edition) by Zheng Qihua Tsinghua University Publishing House, because the cover is yellow, people call it yellow book), you can basically learn grammar by yourself, and use flowcharts to help you understand when you first go to school.
Furthermore, use the book in your hand to learn algorithms and data structures. This part is particularly difficult, and self-study is very difficult. You must communicate with people, such as teachers, online friends and classmates.
Then, search for various topics on the Internet, especially previous topics.
Finally, take part in the competition to receive the prize.
4. The importance of school is very important.
There are almost no training courses for this kind of thing. Therefore, the importance attached by the school is very important. If you don't believe me, you can check the list of NOIp winners in recent years. Basically, the list of winners in each province is monopolized by some schools. Because those schools attach importance to it and have good teachers. So if you are determined to continue, you must choose a high school that attaches importance to this aspect. Otherwise, get twice the result with half the effort.
I am the national second prize winner of NOIp High School. I have been studying by myself since 1. It's interesting to have no teacher to teach me in high school. I hope you can succeed. Let me know if you have any questions.