Codeforces vs Codechef: Which one is better and why?

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Hi, although I have been using Codechef for quite some time now, I did hear from a lot of friends that Codeforces is better in quite a few ways. This includes, quicker response from discussion forums, more number of competitions, editorials being better and being on time, etc…

I am not a complete beginner but I still consider myself some 3 rating type of person on codechef. Which one would be better for me amongst the two? Codechef or Codeforces?

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You are asking this question at codechef so of course codechef is better. It’s because codechef is an Indian website and mostly target to Indians towards Competitive programming by organising one of the largest Competition of world i.e., ACM_ICPC, Snackdown etc.

Here the beauty of discussion session is much more better than codeforeces. As it gives you coins for the contribution at discussion session.

It’s more interactive and responsive than any other websites like codeforces. You will definitely get reply of every question whether it belongs to admin or other community members.

At last it organise the long contest that last for 10 days which you will not get at codeforces.

Codechef is awesome and fabulous in my point of view. You will also accept it if you spend time apart from codeforces.

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This types of questions has been asked many times before, so instead of asking this in codechef, you should have done some googling…!

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In my point of view, I think as per contests, codeforces is better, they have a lot more contests. Good blogs from top coders like Gennady, Petr, Egor, rng58. Along with that codeforces have a bigger audience., Most of the top programmers frequently code on codeforces like Gennady, Petr, Egor, rng58. As far as I can see on codechef Gennady, Petr participated only 1-2 contests in a year on codechef.

A competition is as good as it’s competitors, clearly, codeforces have more from top-tier programmers.

But codechef is better in its own way like long contests give you enough time to read concepts and work over it.

it’s a way how you want to code if you want to code more frequent in a more competitive environment codeforces is the better option. If you want to code less and learn to debug and all then codechef is better.

One more thing to notice codeforces have a super fast rating system, while codechef takes 10s of days. They never reveal all test cases so that you can code accurately in the first try(Gennady’s Philosophy write correct code so you don’t have to debug.).

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CodeChef Advantages:

  1. Codechef organises a 10 day long contest (good for beginners), Codeforces doesn’t.
  2. I personally feel codechef is better for beginners to practise as the have a lot of problems sorted according to difficulty level.
  3. And also as @bansal1232 said codechef organises one of the largest competition of the world ACM_ICPC.
  4. Except for FEB and DEC challenges, editorials are provided punctually.

Codeforces Advantages:

  1. Most importantly, they provide editorials for their questions just after the contest
  2. Also they update the rating really fast (Took part in #406 yesterday and the ratings got updated within hours) whereas codechef takes days now.
  3. I don’t remember codeforces removing their questions during live contests ( @admin please, you take days to solve two problems just to know that they have been removed. :frowning: )

Both the codeforces and codechef community are supportive, you get answers within minutes :smiley:

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Codechef

Advantages

  1. Long contest motivate beginners to learn new topics.
  2. More rewarding(laddus) than codeforces.
  3. Active community.
  4. Partial scoring.
  5. Better Editorials

Disadvantages

  1. Rating update takes too much time!(This doesn’t affect you algorithmic skills. :P)
  2. Sometime weak system test
  3. No way to filer submissions which got 100 points.
  4. Editorial problem. But most of the times, users will upload unofficial editorial or you can ask.
  5. Long contest promote cheating.
  6. Cannot see test case on which code fails. We can add this in advantage too.

Codeforces

Advantages

  1. More rated contests(6-7 per month)
  2. Hacking system which ensures strong system tests. Moreover user can hack if they have can’t solve more problems.
  3. Ranklist looks better because time and points are given.
  4. More active community than codechef. Moreover you can message people. This feature is very helpful.
  5. Blogs and tutorials from top rated members.
  6. You can see test case where your code fails.

Disadvantages

  1. No partial points given. You get points if your solution is correct else 0 points.
  2. Less rewarding.
  3. Unfair competition because of two divisions.
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Codechef is better than codeforces because it’s discussion forum is awesome and host a contest is easy. I think codechef is best place for learning and practicing programming.

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my motto is ioi so what is better for me?

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None of the platform are better. It depends on your level. Codechef is good for beginner or intermediate(like me) coders. Codechef lets you learn new things. But codeforces is kind of advanced. They prefer practicing than learning. But my opinion is continue on both site. They both are great :smiley:

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Can someone explain me how zco36079 approached to the solution for the problem FENCE in INOI 2017? The solution is CodeChef: Practical coding for everyone .

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I suggest Start with SPOJ,it is the best collection of classical and challenging problems.At least solve about to 100-200 problems to be a good coder.
Once you are good and confident with these problems you should now move to CODECHEF or TOPCODER and CODEFORCES.
Solve challenges including long ,short and lunchtime of codechef. Solve practice questions of it is possible.
I THINK THIS IS THE PERFECT WAY TO BE A PERFECT…

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Of course Codechef is the best among two.As Codechef is a indian brand we should always respect indian brands and more codechef gives you opportunity to learn more and more things .
Codechef gives you goodies for your performance enhancement.
So,in my views Codechef is best.

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I think codeforces is better because contests because it has large number of contests as compared to Codechef and rating system is so quick

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The question is kind of tooo broad. It depends on you the most. Whats your preference? What ideology you prefer? What type of contests you are inclined to? What things you look for in editorials?

Spend some time at places and figure out for yourself that which site suits you the best.

And lol, I think that codechef’s discussions are quite quick. We all try to help whenever we can. :slight_smile:

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The editorial point is invalid. Except Feb and Dec editorials, the editorials are furnished punctually. We cannot use 2 months unexpected behaviour to conclude overall.

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God, that philosophy XD

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Edited :smiley:

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@vijju123 September Challenge also. In last one year, there may 5-6 such contests.

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@dushsingh1995, I think things will be different this time :slight_smile:

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Hope for the best!!! :slight_smile: