I liked the problem set, as I do every month, but as mentioned by @predator0 the problems were kinda “one sided”. I am using codechef for over a year now and it’s a wonderful site with lots of support, editorials, a good community and a lot of diverse algorithm problems but there are some issues that seem to be increasing contest after contest.
TEST CASES: In certain problems the test cases seem to be sort of weak.
Most users have experienced the consequences of not addressing this issue properly. If it’s caught early during the contest the submissions are re-judged and of course some solutions fall and it can be a frustrating experience for obvious reasons. If it’s caught close to the end of the contest, re-judging stops being an option because this approach doesn’t give enough time for the users to strike back but it still doesn’t feel right because wrong solutions were able to pass. What I suggest should be done is to put a little more work into generating test cases or to implement a system similar to what is used in codeforces and topcoder which is challenging submissions after the end of the contest, the later being my favorite option.
PROBLEM STATEMENTS: Some problem statements are kind of complicated to understand and unpleasant to read not just because of mathematical reasons and a few ones don’t have enough specifications.
A large part of the community doesn’t have English as their native language (that includes me) but since it is by far the language most used in IT it only makes sense to use it as a means of communication among the community. Of course grammar mistakes are expected but that doesn’t serve as an excuse to neglect in writing problem statements, grammar mistakes are not the biggest issue here. Some problems lack specifications which feels like an handicap to users trying to solve them. This is a very minor issue because it’s very rare and can usually be safely corrected during the contests but still I mentioned it just to be out there and on the mind of the problem setters.
COMMENT SECTION: There are some useful comments but sometimes it feels like a place of crying for help, providing test cases or to brag.
This issue bothers me a lot, even more than cheating and I’ll explain why in a moment. First of all, the comment section is to provide some feedback, regarding something that can’t be understood in the problem statement or some weird behaviour in the evaluation of submissions and it has been useful to correct some mistakes or to add important specifications in the problem statement itself but often it becomes a debate place and this is not entirely users fault. Usually, the users that post such comments are unfamiliar with the rules and/or don’t realise what they’re doing. What I don’t understand is why this is more strictly addressed in the cook offs. One of the rules in the cook offs is that admin will only publish the comment if the comment is appropriate, why can’t the same be done in long contests? I mean, it would make even more sense to apply this in the long contest rather than the cook offs. A cook off usually lasts 2 hours, give or take. A long contest usually lasts 10 days. Inappropriate comments can cause a lot more damage in 10 days. And since in every contest users get to “debate” the problem in the comment section it is becoming acceptable. This annoys me more than cheating because cheaters choose to do so, they are aware of the rules but choose to cheat, it’s not the community or admins fault but the comment section is supposed to be controlled to prevent the usual behaviour. I’ve often seen users provide hints right after solving the problem. That just takes the fun out of solving the problem, by providing hints we’re just preventing the other ones to learn something by themselves and we’re being unjust to the users who have already solved the problem. I believe that’s mostly to brag, showing that you solved the problem and somehow you’re the one who can help other users solve it too.
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So far I’ve only made critics but don’t get me wrong, I love codechef, the problems, the community, I truly think is an amazing place to connect with other programmers, to learn interesting stuff and to compete. I’m not trying to point fingers here and I don’t have any kind of hatred feeling towards anyone, everybody makes mistakes. The problem setters are doing an amazing job, I couldn’t dream that there were so many different problems with so many approaches, the little I know about algorithms I mostly owe it to codechef. I’m aware that the issues mentioned above are not easily solvable for numerous reasons: lack of people, lack of time and so on… I’m not an expert but I’m not useless either so I could provide help in assisting with the 3 issues mentioned. The reason I don’t want do so is because I would hate to miss a contest, since helping with the issues mentioned would give me an unfair advantage over the other competitors during the contest. As I said before I owe a lot to codechef, so I could eventually “sacrifice” a couple of contests to help out with what I can. I’m not trying to offend anyone, really, and nothing I’ve written here is final so if you disagree with me feel free to downvote but please comment as to why and give me a chance to either change my point of view or to provide a good argument to defend it. Oh and I know this thread is about NOV13 but I had to generalise because those things happen almost every contest.