CodeChef Traditions (Unoffical)

After reading this answer by @sorcerer48. I wanted to write something in comments over there. But this list became long. So I decided to write it separately here.

There are some traditions of CC, which everyone newcomer should be aware of -

  1. We celebrate Chef’s BDay on 1 March.
  2. Codechef to never provide the link properly at first and (may or may not) fix it later. (credits - @sorcerer48 and @the_extractor)
  3. Never provide editorials on time.
  4. Never provide editorials of hard problems.
  5. Never add strong test cases.
  6. Always search for reasons to extend long.
  7. Never credit laddus on time.
  8. Never deliver goodies on time.
  9. Never reply to emails on time.
  10. Never take measures to stop plagiarism on this forum.
  11. Always leave a room so that people can rant about ICPC being unfair to them. (CC’s fault??)
  12. Every month they have some things more important than their regular contest and editorials.
  13. We will declare some unrated contest every year. So that everyone can know we have just upgraded our servers, dbs etc.
  14. @vijju123 is (pseudo) admin :P.
  15. Adding virtual contest is in our pipeline from years and it is our priority.
  16. We don’t release test cases after the contest.
  17. If you see 400,401,404, 500 etc. errors while opening discuss.codechef.com. And some other glitches here. Don’t worry we are aware of them. Please try again.
  18. Goodies.codechef.com is the heaviest site on *codechef.com domain. Will take some time to load.
  19. Ranting about plagiarism here will serve no purpose.
  20. Do you have some more?? Answer below will love to add them.
  21. There is always some blast at Chef’s Birthday. (credits - @vijju123 )
  22. “Codechef will NEVER have a balanced cook-off or LTIME no matter what or how much feedback we give.” (credits - Anonymous )
  23. “Hold right there Sparky” tradition - If you are not signed into codechef. We will prove to you that you are a bot. (credits - @alei)
  24. Never assume that we will comply with the ETA which we announce.

Waiting to Add -

“CodeChef to never provide all problems at the start of long challenge and add them later.” (credits - @the_extractor)

Hall of fame for Noteworthy Blogs-
Why is Codechef like this? by @enchom

P.S. - CC is looking for hard problems. You have some problems? Apply Here

44 Likes

Wow. This post should be pinned to the top of Discuss.

Please correct the second point. It should be “Codechef to never provide the link properly at first and may or may not fix it later.” Because links are not always fixed.

Edit: Even while posting this, I got a 504 Gateway Time-out. Will Discuss ever be fixed? @vijju123 said Discuss issues will be fixed after ICPC, but it seems nothing has happened.

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In my college codechef means cp, and yeah! having more stars always feels better when people are dying for it… But somehow codechef is losing it’s charm… where, don’t know… But wait!

The points you raised here, @aryanc403, are just table of contents type… Each point can be elaborated further with a better creative provess and a serious book can be made out of nowhere… xD

I’m personally a codechef lover, who just don’t want to see other sites doing better at cp… How can they have better editorials (or at least better way of discussing them)… I started here, so can’t leave it too soon… Hope we’ll taste some spark again, sparky!

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I have a question?? Since sharechat sponsor monthly contest on codechef So should I apply each and every time when i participate in a contest or applying only ones in any contest is ok. I am asking because when i click on apply for internship on any contest it basically redirects me to same google form.
Thanks :slight_smile:

You forgot the “Hold right there Sparky” tradition:)

When I used to participate on cc, I always found some problem that I couldn’t solve, so every round was interesting for me. I didn’t care about goodies, ladus, plagiarism, … I was only interested in solving problems, so the main problem for me is to have good problems, and editorials (actually I don’t know why there are not editorials for hard problems if the setter always sends a sketch of his approach)

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Plus the long challenge are supposed to be tough but for last 3 long challenge are being way to easy…There is no point in giving a false sense of accomplishment among mew coders…This will boost the over-confidence and won’t inspire people to get better at programming.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with Point #8. I ordered my SnackDown T-Shirt on 21st Feb and it arrived on 1st March. Frankly, I never thought it would arrive this fast !!!

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Problems from contests are never immediately moved to the practice section. It takes a day or more for them to be moved. I realized it since I just participated in a contest and I know I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to be able to submit solutions to the problems in the practice section.

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Hello Mr. Pessimistic!

If you have so many issues with CC, why are you even here? :slight_smile:

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Ranting about plagiarism here will serve no purpose.

It ideally shouldn’t lol. The appropriate person to appeal to is the MOSS Admin. He is a good guy, I met him when I went to Mumbai.

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Updated the new URL to submit ideas to Problem Idea Submission | CodeChef

Sadly after ICPC Snackdown came. Anyways, from what I am perceiving it should happen very soon now…

Wtf… They still follow it. No editorial for last problem :frowning:

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@vijju123 is our pseudo admin. LOL! This was funny. True though. Thanks @vijju123

3. Never provide editorials on time.

Will talk to team to at least partially mitigate it - not adding any delays if editorialist has written them already. If editorialist hasn’t (or worse, can’t) write the editorials, then thats a little tough case right now.

Each time.

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I think I can add something here.

Most of the times, the setters notes are not adequate - at least they were not for me many times whenever I joined panel as editorialist. I had to go through the (usually uncommented) code and kind of bang my head in reverse engg it to see what it does. I remember once the setter’s sketch consisted only of one observation + "We then use this *insert data structure here*" + "Thus, time complexity is O(N^3)" and no details of the solution itself or how to use the Data Structure XD.

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@vijju123, why one does not demand from setter that he must make admin understand solution, and only after that accept problem? I think setters get paid for tasks.

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why one does not demand from setter that he must make admin understand solution

Codechef is already suffering from lack of good setters. Then, most of setters are international whose English may be weak. So it solves the editorialist’s issue but hosting contest becomes very difficult.

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Last time I applied to problemset, cc took 1 year to reply so I didn’t problem set. I again applied like a month ago. Reply pls