I recently came across the currently running contest ./EXECUTE on codechef. When I saw the problems of the contest I found that some of them were directly copied from the earlier codechef rounds( infact very recent rounds, just slight wording changed).
I want to know about following things. Should codechef not atleast view the problems that whether they are of sufficient quality to be allowed to set up as a contest ? If this kind of situation happens more frequently, I am sure that some of the serious participants who wants to participate in serious contests, might deter from participating in new external contests. I know a lot of good external contests happen on codechef and people have put up a good amount of work in maintaining their standards. So should codechef allow external contest without any verification of problem statements.
And I am also worried that all the comments at the contest page who stated that the problems are copied from some earlier contests were deleted. This is not at all a good way of organising contests.
I want admins to do something about this issue.
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Exactly. The first question in the above mentioned contest is taken directly from October Long Challenge!! When i wrote a comment that the question looks familiar, the organiser deleted it.
Codechef admins should verify that the external contest problems have not been copied from atleast their previously held contests. I think there should be a warning of some sort to external contest holders that such activities will not be tolerated.
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problem setting(+framing) is very difficult and making test files is an even tougher job.hence instead of making new ques external contest are allowed to use the ques already present. CC only provides a platform(for now) but are unable to go through the sums as well as the TCs as they have a lot of work in their Queue. also if u see on SPOJ contests can be arranged using the ques in their problem set…also if u comment that the problem is copied with a change of wordings as the solns are visible ppl who had not participated in the contest also get the code freely(i.e. u spoil the contest)
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prob setting being difficult doesn’t mean you copy paste probs from resources, and that too from most recent contests…that prob was open for 10 days and close to 2600 ppl had already solved it. then whats the point in again hosting the same question? the editorials and correct submissions are out in the open anyone can copy paste. those who tried during the long contest and couldnt succeed can also copy paste now…anyways this post was about the quality of external contests and that has indeed gone down recently.
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