Siyah's blog

A Good Contest
By Siyah, history, 15 months ago, In English

In your opinion, what is the most important factor for a good Contest? and can u share a some good contest?

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15 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

It should be balanced.

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15 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

dosent use confusing STORY

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15 months ago, # |
← Rev. 7   Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

As a Chinese user, I think the problem should be easily read. For example, B in yesterday's round is not good, I spent too much time on it. Finally I got low scores of A and B. If u don't really understand my words, u can try to translate the following sentences.

作为一个中国用户，我认为题目首先要易于阅读。例如昨天的第二题就不是很好，我花了很多时间最后使得我在前两题的分数很低。

You see, it's hard. If you have to spend about 10 minutes to read the problem, apparently so bad.

Second, the problems should be placed correctly. Yesterday's B also, it is too hard as a div.2 B.

At last, solutions may be interesting. I don't think a contest with many boring problems can be called a "Good Contest".

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    15 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    ya agree , tnx

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    15 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    No, I don't think so. As a Chinese, I only find ICPC Huawei Challenge's statements hard to read because it is way too long. If you need to translate every problem, what you need to focus on is to improve your English, but not to criticize the length of the statement. I often see my peers using translation models, but I think that is unnecessary.

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15 months ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Since participants only have 120 minutes or 150 minutes to solve 5 or 6 problems, the statement in problems should not be too long. If you want to add stories, try to tell them briefly.

Also, it is a good idea to put a few corner cases in the pre-test-cases of the problems, or you may see a lot of people fail system test(FST) after the contest.

upd. The main purpose of the CodeForces Rounds is to compete the abilities of the participant's algorithm, so you need to make the problems easy to understand.

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    15 months ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

    I think for me 2 hours is enough :) Because I usually can solve 4 problems only :(

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15 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

comments get upvote but blog downvote :(

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15 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

0.Earlier time. It is really bad to stay up to 00:35 :(

1.Better score distribution and problem diffculty. A should be 800 to 1000,B should be 900 to 1300,C should be 1300 to 1700,etc.

2.Better balancing.For example,C shouldn't harder than D,and shouldn't has too much difficuty difference from D.

However,B>>C in yesterday.

3.Pretests.Pretests shouldn't become too weak,and so do samples.( However this is not very important , FST is exciting)

4.No same problems in another OJ. It is really severe.

5.(important) No too long problem please. It is really disgusting for foreign candidates,like Chinese.It is preferred to test algorithms more.

6.Problems should be interesting.A typical problem will be boring.

7.Plays Genshin Impact.

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