Why the delay in posting editorials for the Long Challenge

[rphenson]

Why are the editorials for the long challenge not posted within minutes of the end of the challenge? I assume that the editorials are written prior to rather than after the end of the challenge. If not, they should be. Completed editorials should be required as part of the acceptance of the challenge questions. Many of us expend a considerable amount of time in attempting to solve the challenge questions, and are very interested in the editorials, especially for questions we were unsuccessful in solving during the contest. The posting of code (annotated or not) is a poor substitute for an editorial with sufficient explanation to facilitate learning of the more sophisticated algorithms. This is an area where CodeChef definitely needs improvement.

[ssjgz]

This comes up after pretty much every contest

I did some digging for answers last time, and made a note of these comments:

Editorials - why late?

Why aren't there Editorials for every question by default?

I have been part of panel for cookoff and on basis of that I can comment a bit here. Its really tough for editorialist to get editorials ready on time, because at times problems are ready/finalized just hours before contest. In my time, on of the questions was finalized just ~1-2 hours before contest and there was nothing available except setters code to write editorial from. Keeping a deadline hence, adds a high amount of stress to the job. So editorials for all 6 problem may not be ready imm…

why codechef not putting editorial for each contest as codeforces ?

There are 2 reasons why this is not happening on CC. Beginner section contains most of the problems imported from spoj.com Since nobody at CC prepared them so no editorials were made. And for this purpose, this forum was made. If it is a recent contest then there are 2 possibility - 2a. If it is a hard question and editorials for easy are available then editorialist didn’t make them. 2b. Lazy @admin.

Editorials for May Long Challenge

Yes, tracking both the cases. @admin assured me that a new editorialist was hired, and he had written some of them already. They asked for time, I am keeping a track of it. But please be patient, with codechef organizing its workshops at summer, and other competitions going on, the @admin s are busy for month of May-June. May get some time to get back to me- I will update as soon as I get a response.

Request to put up Editorial's on Codechef's Fb page as soon as contest ends.

Latex will be highly inconsistent. Editorialist might have to make 2 versions this case- not efficient. You can check other’s solution till then- this should do for first 3 problems of cook off and first 2 of lunchtime. After that solutions need some effort to understand- but if you are willing, it can be better than editorials. Admins are looking at ways to optimize discuss to handle the load rather than temporary fixes at the moment.

CodeChef Traditions (Unoffical)

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…

Editorials for CodeChef's monthly contests

Does any one cares about it now from codechef team. Before throwing a contest, please prepare the editorial. You dont yet know how the contests are created- its not always possible and feasible given last moment problem rejections/replacements are common. Codechef is doomed they just care about ICPC I disagree. I am perfectly fine with contests being a bit less than perfect in December if codechef is using that time to make sure ICPC goes fine. (Now, whether some mistakes still happen or not …

[vijju123]

Hi,

Completed editorials should be required as part of the acceptance of the challenge questions.

Setter does not necessarily write the editorial and hence this cannot be enforced.

I assume that the editorials are written prior to rather than after the end of the challenge.

Wrong.

Many of us expend a considerable amount of time in attempting to solve the challenge questions, and are very interested in the editorials, especially for questions we were unsuccessful in solving during the contest.

I understand. You are free to suggest and criticize in this regard.

[shim98]

Not criticising at all, i find certain editorials of Codechef contests more detailed than other coding platform editorials that is why they are worth the wait !
But yeah I would say like 24-48 hours is reasonable time to wait for the Editorials to be out
If it exceeds that, it makes participants a bit impatient then.

[babangain]

In case of short Challenges, delay is natural.
But in case of Long Challenges, it is not.
Editorialist get good amount of time for the same.

Also, It might be better to divide editorial reponsibility among 2-3 editorialist in a contest.
Writing good quality editorials for that many problem is very hard for single editorialist

[vijju123]

But in case of Long Challenges, it is not. Editorialist get good amount of time for the same.

Why? Cause the contest is of 10 days?

I disagree. Usually in problems for long contest there is a lot to explore, and I personally feel the problems used in long are more lengthier (code and idea wise) and different than those used in short contest.

It personally takes me 1 day to write editorial for easy problems, and 2-3 days for Medium and Hard problems. So I will definitely disagree that 10 days is more than sufficient for 11 problems.

[babangain]

Agree. Insufficient for single editorialist.

[vijju123]

But case of multiple editorialist is also not good. If you think that by dividing work among editorialists, quality will increase, then its not gonna happen. At most very minor improvement will be seen. Each editorialist has his own style of writing which is the most dominating factor in quality of editorial.