That’s true, what CodeChef has been able to achieve with such limited resources is appreciable. Besides the fact that they are currently one of the best CP sites alongside Codeforces and TopCoder is worth acknowledging. Besides blaming them in this situation ain’t gonna do any good. Point out the flaws and appreciate them for their hard work and effort. Running a CP site isn’t easy, sure they are gonna improve with time
I agree that server issues we’re not too extreme(at least for me)… Cuz I was able to submit and read questions…
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Lot of debate here XD. Not sure what can be done for weak test cases, so I’d wait for an update from contest admin here.
I tried last problem then cause all problems had “0 submissions” so I was like, “Ok lets try this one, no constraint on X,Y and L in statement. Perhaps brute force?” XDDDDDDDDDD
I wont comment anything on rated or unrated. My ideal principle is that if there is any disruption in contest for >10\%-20\% of contest’s time, whether it be long queue or error in submitting or statements not loading, then contest should go unrated. But again, its a very strict definition.
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I’m curious as to why this was introduced. It’s extremely annoying and I do not know of any other competitive programming site that finds it necessary to use Captchas. Some transparency from CodeChef would be appreciated.
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Sparky was introduced to tackle the scrapping of a large amount of data due to CodeChef API Hackathon.
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Editorials are out.
Not an official statement or related to @admin in anyway, just my personal opinion-
It wont be made unrated just because of weak TC in OETW. If you individually suffered too much especially due to server issues then shoot me or codechef a mail, I will see if anything can be done for your relief.
@vijju123 thanks for your reply! I myself got benefited from the weak test case and server issue also was not catastrophic, but really accepting the wrong solutions for OETW makes it unfair for the whole community that’s why i was asking for @admin to present and official statement regarding such cases if the happen in future contests!!
Wait… what? That makes zero sense. In the API Hackathon, participants use the API so that they don’t have to resort to web scraping.
https://discuss.codechef.com/questions/135385/facing-weird-problem-lately-when-tried-to-access-codechef/135402
Only admin can explain this dilemma.
@vijju123 A suffered a lot due to server issues and I think everyone did. The contest started at 21:30, and I opened all the problems at once. I first switched on to ATM2 thinking by the name that it is an easy one. It loaded in 3-4 tries after showing Some Error Occurred. I submitted my solution to it and shifted to MAKEPERM but it had not loaded. Only the footer of the CodeChef page was there. I struggled in loading it, with error 405 Not Allowed at least 20 times. It finally opened. I submitted my solution expecting an AC but received WA after say 6 minutes.
Contd…
Confused I wrote the code again, confident that it would work again. I clicked on the submit button on the problem page but the page just didn’t load (no internet issues, surely). Only the footer again. Fine! I kept refreshing until the thing finally appeared. I submitted it only to realise that I had missed out on a bracket of the main function. The code threw Compilation Error after 2-3 minutes. I had modified the original one till then. I hit back and went on to submit the modified one. Then the popup came, “You are allowed to submit once in 120 seconds…”
Mail me your grievance. I will see how severe it is and what can be done.
Contd. again…
Fine! I waited for two minutes, submitted it again to get 405 Not Allowed. Kept refreshing the page but in vain. I went again to the problem page, clicked on submit and then “Hold on Sparky1”. What the Hell!
Then this was my routine:
Captcha
405
Captcha
405
Captcha
405
Submitted with AC.
I tried loading the next problem, but the result can be guessed I think!
Frustrated I closed the entire thing and went on to sleep, hoping that the CodeChef Community would make it unrated.
I woke up the next day to see a drop in my ratings.
Disappointed!
Also, the Junior Ratings for SEPT18B were not updated. The Junior Ranklist kept showing: Updated till SEPT18A, and then straight to Updated till COOK98B. Am I missing out something here?
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