Why aren't test cases with answers published after contest ends?

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It would be very helpful if at the end of a contest, links to the test cases and the answers would be made available. Sometimes I believe I have generated correct code that works on the given sample cases and test cases that I have generated, but that gets a WA when submitted. Sometimes, I am able to determine where my coding error lies (or sometimes how I have misread some aspect of the problem), but sometimes I can’t determine what I have done wrong. I believe I could correct my code if I had the actual cases and the answers. I understand that I could ask on the forum for someone to identify my problem, but I think it would be more educational for me to debug my code myself given the actual cases and answers. I believe some of the other coding sites provide cases and answers. Is there some reason why this could not be done on CodeChef?

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Yes there is a reason. Codechef strictly believes that giving the test case where the problem fails, even after the contest, hinders the learning of a person. That person will be tempted to look in the test cases, and figure out the problem in his code. But figuring out the bug, without looking at the test case is better than that.

I hope you understand :slight_smile:

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I strongly disagree. After the contest ends using test cases and answers would be no more tempting than looking at one of the many submissions by others that correctly solved the problem. I suspect that the real reason is the work involved in making this information available. That is too bad. Making the information available would greatly enhance the learning experience. I hope you understand.

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Everyone has their own opinion, and according to the Codechef team as far as I can understand them, test cases with answers should not be published. If you want the test case on which your answer fails, do problems from Codeforces. You can’t expect all the sites to have a similar feature.

Some Possible Reasons:

Note, these are based on my thinking. Team Codechef can have different answers.

  1. In a live coding contest, you can never see the test case on which your answer fails, even if it is as low as a pre-regional contest, or as high as an international contest. Why do you want to promote these then?

  2. Okay, you want to say that if you see a test case in which you get a WA, probably you will get 1-2 extra days to solve another problem. But do you know that you have wasted the time you took to solve the problem. It doesn’t get you up, rather it pulls you down. How? Answer is debugging. It will be useful in future problems too.

  3. But what if I don’t want to do competitive programming?
    Sites like Codeforces are good. For long challenge, Codechef is good. You can try various other sites.

CONCLUSION:
This debate is tricky, because if you view a proposal from one point it is good, and from the other point, it is bad. So, its a request to not reply anymore, as Codechef will not show test cases with answers.

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