What you could have tried is to divide the tasks into subtasks and show subtask-specific information upon each submit. But, one would get score (1 point per problem) for a problem, only if all subtasks pass. (Hard-earned points!!!)
For folks who want to try harder problems, they can still get ideas on how and where they should optimize, but, unless and until they reach the final destination, no points.
Thoughts?
Disclaimer: Personal opinion.
It’s a long contest. You have ample time to judge and correct your approach to come up with the perfect solution in 10 days.
But the situation was the same in previous contests - you had just 1 point and it was not important how hard the problem was…
I still cannot see the problem? Ok, they have some additional points, and? Someone solving the problem for 100 points has always higher rank.
I will tell you my IOI experience. When I started programming and came to know that IOI had partial grading, I often used to focus on getting partial points rather than going for full solutions. Basic human instinct - maximisation of points. A beginner who managed to score 40 on Fombi would not make a real effort to move to 100. This happens; I know it pretty well. If there has to be a change, I would suggest that we can have different points depending on difficulty. Hard problems can be worth 3 points and easy worth 1. Partial grading in a 10 day contest is absolutely ridiculous.
I like the way you put it @dextrous. It actually ruins the thrill of managing to do the questions which <100 people have done.
1 point for each problem was scrutinized but partial grading is even worse …
when one see’s that only one test case is wrong then he/she go for corner cases straightforward … previously it made you think more about the problem with your solution … it widens your way of thinking (sometimes corner case check and sometimes we have to completely change the approach)… partial scoring hints whether approach is wrong or only corner cases are left .!!!
Who marked this as “community wiki” and why? This option is, according to my understanding, for editorials…
you are correct on your point … but these are just my personal views on the format …
Here I think the situation is different in long contest - you have a lot of time to implement first easier approach and later the more advanced one, while you have a lot of time to do so… Motivation is personal thing, for you it’s a challenge maybe to get 20 WAs, for others it might be rewarding to have at least some points…
too much of hassle. Its better to remove it.
This “hacking” is your personal choice, it’s not contest format problem…
OK, understand this. Partial grading allows for contestants to know whether their approach is entirely wrong or only on corner cases. This way, people tend to think less and, consequently, lose out on improving your debugging skills. Then, as one of the posters wrote, many inappropriate solutions pass because you get an idea of the test cases. Lastly, beginners tend to get satisfied with partial points and don’t make the effort of scouring the internet for answers. In all, it is of no good except the fact that contestants just practice naive algos.
but why should a contest allow something like this. A good contest is capable of preventing such a thing. isn’t it?
why to give a chance of hacking !!!
At one point of time when you are really frustrated getting WA’s, even good coders may be tempted to “hack” …
there should be no mean of hacking(like in previous contests)… A good coder must know how to handle this frustration and come out with the opt solution in difficult situations all by himself !!!
For example on CodeForces this is not working well - when there is contest for div 2 only few div 1 coders participate and that ruins the contest and makes it difficult to advance from div 2 to div 1.
there are many other major problems you overlooked. One of them is the problem of hacking.
Ok, but we are talking about two different things here - one is, that there is partial grading and another is, that information for which test case you solution failed is visible, and the later is the problem, not the partial grading…