February Long challenge div2 is like math exam :/

First of all , I want to say thankyou to problem setters .Those problems remind my higher schooling math.
Another one , codechef long challenge division 2 becoming math exam because most of the questions are math related and a formula we need to derive.
Instead of giving these type of questions just give some good algorithm based questions so that we can learn them and compete with good programmers :slight_smile:
If you agree just give me upvote :slight_smile:

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Totally agree with this.Problem clearly was 3rd & 4th questions.They were just too easy.Just making problem statement long doesn’t mean you increase difficulty.That’s clearly evident from number of submissions too.I believe 5th & 6th should have been 3rd & 4th.Both Art of Balance & Manhattan were really good questions.Can’t upvote because don’t have enough reputation points

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Problem solving and Coding is all about math. If you good at math you easily derive a new equation’s for new problems, BTW this long challenge not a lunchtime or cookoff where you find a problems where pre-defined algorithms fit’s.

Long challenge it’s a place where you can take a time and create your own algorithm using math and finally you solve a problem.

I really enjoy this LONG CHALLENGE, really it refresh all the fundamentals of GEMEOTRY,PROBABILITY and BASIC MATH’s.

A very well thanks to setter’s.

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I’ll tell you one thing. Many people get stuck in these problems as well. It’s good that these problems are set so that you can brush up your higher mathematical skills and remain updated. Overall a good contest.

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Well most of the questions were just math.Please try to add one question on DP also.

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Totally agree… Not Saying That these type of questions should be removed completely but instead of most of the questions being based on math, it should have some algo or some other type of problems. Like i personally really liked the Art of Balance Question that was asked this time. Took me alot of time to solve that.

Hey @goutam88 , mathematics is undeniably a part of coding. Algorithms, think about Divide and Conquer and there comes master’s theorem. Even for dp problems you have to build recursive solution first, bit manipulation is also about maths. I found this long challenge quite decent, maybe it was not suitable for some. And yes it contained DP, Tree and Graph theory problems too. So the moral of the story is that one should try and learn maths when scoring AC is this much easy and yes, codechef problem setters can also be a bit more variant…

There awaits next LONG challenge

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Good brush up on middle school maths

Yeah agree, but all the other contests have those type of questions, this contest was a good refresher of the maths we had learnt in school ! And it took me time to think so I think it was something that needed to be revisited.

Manhattan Rectangle was a good question.

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Now-a-days Div2 has become more of thinking based while Div1 has some good algorithmic and implementation questions. So in Div2 only thinking and some maths is required to solve all the problems. Same happened in previous contest also.

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First four problems of DIV II were cakewalk.

Common CodeChef, your were far better in 2018.

Please add some algorithm question,algorithm question will surely helpful for the campus placement perspective.Totally agree but can’t upvote because i don’t have enough reputation points.

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Previously there use to be Long challenges where we have to put too much of our time to solve those questions for example JULY18B and JUNE18B and there was alot to learn from those challenges but now we can easily solve 4 to 5 on day1 itself Please make challenges such that there is alot of learning .
we couldn’t solve 4 to 5 questions on day1 in challenges like JULY18B and JUNE18B but now many can solve 4 to 5 questions in one day itself so Please make contest like that of JULY18B .

Thank you.

yes! of course
I think these questions are going to improve your Aptitude/mental ability but not much for your programming means i am not saying that math based question should not be given but there should be balance among data structure, Algorithms , Dynamic Programming and some thing like that.

There are some question which are totally math base means if you know the concept of Array and loop you can easily solve these questions so what about programming is this the right place for these question or not.
thanks to all.

unable to vote because of reputation.

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I agree that some problems could have been algorithmic, like DPs and Segment Trees, or some graph theory. I really enjoyed solving ‘Art of Balance’ and ‘Guess it Right’. It’s rightly said that before the division, there was a lot more to learn from Long.

I believe 4 cakewalk problems were too many, and if users really want to improve, they should solve something they haven’t solved beore.
Overall, it was good contest in my opinion, but easy.

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Don’t you people think Programming is an art of mathematics, sometimes pure math related problems are also important. Honestly speaking, for those like me solving even 4 questions in long challenge was really a challenge. But this time after solving 6 questions i really got good confidence for future problems also. Now i’ll look forward to solve most of them.

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can anyone explain how to solve last two problems of this contest.
ARTBALAN

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Don’t like math exams((Math exams are complicated usually!

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yup !!!
it’s my first participation in long challenges on codechef
FEB19 increased my confidence (DIV2)
Most of the problems are linked with math

Agree…

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