[irajdeep]

> Even using recursion is rarely a good idea as you loose control with your memory layout.

Used recursion at tons of Codeforces / ICPC problems with some caching(commonly known as "dynamic programming")

[madsbuch]

I think most problem sets would be hard to solve without use of dynamic programming, irrespective of recursion or not. But yes, recursion with memorisation/accumulation would be a good place to start.