Congrats to all who are gave ZCO, you are probably directly selected for INOI. This might be good for ZCO people but is unfair for ZIO people(me being as one of them).
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I gave ZCO at the Lucknow center and I’ve got one word for the whole experience, TERRIBLE!
You should know this before you go ahead: I live in bareilly and had to travel 250km to attend ZCO at Lucknow center, which is the nearest.
Now let me point out the things(in order they happened):
- Reporting time was 1PM and every kid reached their at that time. However no one was even allowed to get inside the campus until it was 1:50PM. Everyone had to stand outside in scorching weather.
- When we got inside at 1:50PM, we hope the exam would finally start but it didn’t! There were issued with every system and the connectivity was poor (I’m assuming this because they were on phone saying that the internet isn’t working and other similar phrases).
- The first PC that I was alloted had a malfunctioning Keyboard and the “#” key won’t work, including many others. So they replaced the keyboard but here’s the thing, my 10 min practice session’s time wasn’t paused. When around 2 min were left in practice session, I realized that the debugger isn’t working the way it should. It won’t even compile and run the program. That black window won’t even appear.
- They now replaced my system and boom, my practice session was over and the 180min time already started. 10 more minutes went by and I finally had a system with partly working keyboard and okayish debugger. But wait, it doesn’t end here.
- Countless number of times, the session expired. Other half of the times the debugger won’t even stop for the user input. (I even tried a basic input output program to confirm this issue). And do remember my time was flowing.
In all, I would say this was very unfair! Moreover when there was the review page, where we would give ratings, the instructor himself clicked on next, thus not even allowing me give genuine ratings.
This was a very unfair and poorly organized exam. I don’t understand how am I even supposed to work on the problems when the system isn’t okay.
I request you to write a mail to IARCS and let them know that you had issues with the system on the test day!
The systems were somewhat unexpectedly horrible. Does anyone have a linear solution to the problems, my solution had polynomial complexity?
The first question in the ZCO is almost the same as SUMFOUR on Spoj. And if anyone came to the INOI workshop, this question is also very much similar to Quadra.
I gave ZCO 2017 in Java,in Kolkata. The experience was nightmarish!
-
Firstly, the system was horrible.
The compiler took about 45 SECONDS to compile and it took more than DOUBLE that time to submit the code. This
was really unacceptable as it usually takes a fraction of a second to compile our code and run it in any platform. So, so much time to only know whether the code has any errors with no arrangement whatsoever to debug it (for Java users). -
Moreover we were not allowed to copy-paste our code. This meant re-typing the same code twice for each problem. GREAT GOING! Also, as coders, we know that often our code contains lengthy parts which need to be typed more than once. So, we had to re-type the things again and again meaninglessly. So much for fast and “competitive” programming!
3)Now, lastly and MOST IMPORTANTLY.
The damn system didn’t work!
Even after successful compilation, all of us got the same error message : "This is not an internally or externally recognized error. ‘Java.is’ "
I mean what does that even mean??
Everything we tried, all changes we made (damn the slow submition system too), it would always show the same thing. It made us helpless. The invigilators were completely ignorant. Already it was tough since we did not have the luxury of a debugger and had been pampered by codechef’s brilliant and easy-to-use system. But we had been told about this before-hand. We were ready to face this. However, the system failure made us completely helpless!
Such was not expected by a machinery provided by the IARCS.
I had entered the hall with a lot of belief and expectations. The problems were quite easy as compared to some of the past year problems. Even faced the fact that it was cold, I was nervous, and the invigilators were not allowing us to visit the washroom (till the last 30 minutes). Found the solutions, somehow typed in 5 out of 6 subtasks and returned home dejected and almost in tears.
I hope I get to give the INOI.
Extracted from my Quora Answer at https://www.quora.com/How-was-ZCO-2017
Given From Techno India Salt Lake (TISL) Kolkata in Java.
The Problems were quite easy to approach this time.
The first problem involved of finding a Quad; given an array S and a number T, find the number of solutions for S[ i ]+S[j]+S[k]+S[l]=T, where i<j<k<l. N<=5000.
The second problem was a graph algorithm one where in a 2D plane (NxM), there are lasers and boxes. Every laser travels horizontally and when it encounters a black box, or two white boxes it stops. You are given the location of these boxes and the rest are initial locations of lasers. Lasers travels towards right and even if it encounters a black box after a white box it stops. Find the sum of all the distances traveled by the lasers. n,m<=10^6 and b,w<=10^5.
(Detailed problems and discussions may be available soon on IARCS website or CodeChef)
Now coming to the TCS iON platform and examination environment, this was highly unexpected of such organized institutions such as IARCS, Techno India Group & most primarily TCS iON.
Let’s begin with the problems (faced by the students of Kolkata Centre step-by-step)
1.> You are asked to type in your username and password on the system…and a normal instinct is that you LOG IN! But when most of us tried to Log In (and got welcomed by a “You have to wait from XX:YY minutes before the exam starts”), the invigilators sniffed at the screens and insulted some of the students as to why did we take such a “deadly” step. They were warning us of the “consequences” and repeatedly told us that we are under CCTV coverage. Fools! Even you guys and your actions are in the CCTV footage.
2.> When I can someone “fool”, I essentially mean it! These invigilators were quite happy to confine themselves to the instructions. When I asked them as why my Java code is not being submitted, they told me that the system is perfect and I may have done “something wrong” with the System files. Come on! I’m not there to hack into the System Files but to code in the Olympiad. The Java systems were not configured properly with the compilers.
3.>I had to change about 3 machines until I highlighted that the same problem in every machine. So their solution was, “Machine is Offline! Please change to another Machine!” Like Offline? My account was still logged in and the timer was still ticking down.
EDIT: <The error message was “An error occurred while executing the code ‘iONOAP’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file”.>
<Thanks for reminding Ishan Das Sharma!>
4.>The Java Debugger as expected was inaccurate in generating error log. It cannot determine Big Integers or even double array data-types and the compiler repeatedly “recommended” me to change to int datatype. In fact the problem statement itself mentions of using double data-types. The Dev C++ debugger was also inefficient in compiling for my fellow coders in my center.
EDIT: <The error message was Required: int; Found: long Probable loss of precision>
<Thanks for making it sound straight Balpreet Singh!>
5.>For no reason, the machines themselves logged out with a “session expired” message. I had to login 4 times to get back to my console. Again the invigilators said that I had done “something”. They were at perpetual loss of thoughts, and finally recommended “Machine is Offline! Please change to another Machine!”
This was the worst online examination that I’ve ever given!
I still do not realize why IARCS does not shift the contest platform to CodeChef , Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ) or HackerEarth. These are quite efficient and economical platforms with CodeChef backing up support for ICO.
“I’m offline! Please change to another platform!” 
Quora blog: http://debmaj2.quora.com/
I gave ZCO in Kolkata. The second problem solved in roughly 20-30 minutes. Though it wasn’t because of the terrible application of TCS. Dev-CPP terminal was getting closed within 5 seconds. I changed my system 3 times. My code was a little bit wrong. What I did was that I hard coded my test case into my program in DevCPP. Finally, I was able to solve problem number 2 and it was accepted correctly. Due to these terrible situations, I couldn’t get time to do the first problem.
Dear Student,
You attended ZCO-2017 on Sunday, 20 November, 2016. Several ZCO
centres experienced technical difficulties with the TCS iON
platform, as a result of which a large number of students did not
get a fair chance to attempt the exam. Hence, we have decided to
allow all students who were present for ZCO on 20 November to
directly write the second round exam, INOI.
INOI-2017 is scheduled for Sunday, 8 January, 2017. We are in the
process of reviewing the technical arrangements for INOI. We will
send out details about the final platform in a few days.
–
Dr Madhavan Mukund
National Coordinator, Indian Computing Olympiad
Professor, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai, India
URL : Madhavan Mukund Office : +91 44 6748 0923
Email: ico@iarcs.org.in Mobile : +91 9444 992 990
I wrote ZIO this year. I didnt face any problem…But not all ZCO candidates must be selected for INOI.
This is an unfair decision and will affect a lot of ZIO candidates also. A re-exam must be conducted and only those who do well should be selected…I find this very unfair.
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I think IARCS should seriously look into making sure that INOI does not face the same problems.If it is possible, please request the IARCS committee to either change their system or host it on some online judge like Codechef. Codechef even hosted the ICPC regionals so it should be fine to host INOI on it.
The server not responded and the PC shutdown many times we got only 15 mins in total and all other time we sitted their.
Oh… That’s is really awful… 
Same as above, I had to change about 20 times barely even got the chance to code. Couldn’t submit solutions either 
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Btw, I too was able to solve only the first question…
I knew to solve every problem but just too many careless mistakes. I dunno I think I will get like 55. Hope I qualify as I’m in class 8.
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In last one hour I wasn’t able to open Dev C++ even very bad thing
Lasers travel towards right and even if it encounters a black box after a white box it stops.
Why do you say unfair?