Today I got multiple LinkedIn notifications of people reaching 5stars on codechef (and mentioning me in the post).
I figured that a contest must’ve recently concluded, but when I read one of the posts, I found out that it was the Starters 22! Now this had me confused because I remembered that Starters were rated for only Div 3.
So I opened codechef to check it for myself but it turns out - some Starters are rated for Div 3 only while some are for Div 2 and Div 3. And there seems to be no uniformity in that regard.
I can maybe understand why it’s like this - probably based on the available problems they decide if it’s good enough for Div 2 or not and proceed accordingly.
BUT! I think there needs to be some sort of uniformity here. Here’s what the Codechef contests are supposed to be-
Lunchtime - For OI type preparation
Cookoff - For ICPC type preparation
Long - To learn new things while trying to solve problems for days
Starters - For newbies and beginners
I think that this “spirit” is broken if a Starters contest is made rated for Div 2 because it’s not fair to call Div 2 participants “beginners”.
Anyway, if that reason is kinda dumb, here you go - The fact that there’s no uniformity, means that the Div 2 participants won’t know whether to wait for the next Starters contest or not.
Lastly, I don’t have concrete evidence for this but it seems to me like - Starters being rated for Div 2 would dilute the 5star level on Codechef even further.