After solving a couple of challenges in long contests I would like to say that it would be really nice to have at the beginning of the contest the problem setter/tester score for that challenge problem. I’m really curios to see how many times the best contest solution defeats the setter’s solution.
2 Likes
Hum yeah for what I could see in most contests (if not all) setter/tester scores will be beaten. That’s because until each contest is over users will usually try to optimize their approach in order to stay at the top or to get closer to it. The tester and setters for the challenge problems will usually try and come up with a nice approach instead of an optimal one. They usually talk about more than one approach and in which way they could be optimized but they usually don’t go as far as the top scorers.
Also posting the setter and tester solution in the beginning of the contest would kinda kill the meaning of the word competition. Users should try to outperform themselves, not the setters and testers of the problem. Perhaps one day there will be a problem where the goal is to beat the setter score.
I said those things based on what I could see in the contests and editorials and also some speculation. Bottom line is: I don’t agree very much with turning this into an usual practice during the contests, perhaps applying it from time to time. Being a setter or tester takes effort and reasonable knowledge but coming up with a problem or testing it doesn’t mean having the best or optimal approach to it.
2 Likes
I understand your opinion and is almost true ; but when the problem setter is somebody who is in top 5 every time I would like to know the score they got :).
But you know that at the end of the contest 
1 Like