Greetings Codeforces!
First things first, we would like to thank everyone who participated in the previous nine Kotlin Heroes competitions: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5: ICPC Round, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, and Episode 10.
Kotlin Heroes is a great way to play around with Kotlin’s features, learn something new, and practice using the language by solving fun problems. It is great for programmers of any level!
We invite you to join the practice round, where you can improve your algorithmic problem-solving skills and complete training problems. In this round, all the solutions are open and you can request hints if you’re stuck.
Watch tourist and ecnerwala tackle the Kotlin Heroes practice round challenges at the ICPC World Finals in Astana.
Here are some things you can do to help you refresh your knowledge of Kotlin and learn more about competitive programming while you practice:
- Review our Kotlin solutions for the Advent of Code algorithmic puzzles.
- Read our competitive programming tutorial.
- Watch the videos from our Kotlin in Competitive Programming YouTube playlist.
- Look at the problems from the previous practice rounds.
On September 30, 2024, the real challenge begins! Kotlin Heroes: Episode 11 will last 2 hours 30 minutes and will feature a set of problems ranging from simple ones, which are designed to be solvable by anyone, to some really tricky ones for seasoned competitive programmers.
Note that the usage of AI-based tools during the main contest is strictly limited. To find out the guidelines for proper AI use, what is allowed and what is prohibited, please read the post "Rule Restricting the use of AI". Improper use of AI tools during the main contest may result in disqualification.
Using automatic translation tools (including but not limited to neural networks and AI) to convert code written in other programming languages to Kotlin goes against the spirit of the competition, so it is also strictly prohibited.
Prizes:
The top three winners will receive cash prizes of $512, $256, and $128 (or rewards of equivalent value), respectively. The top 50 participants will win a Kotlin Heroes T-shirt and an exclusive Kotlin sticker, and all competitors who solve at least one problem will be entered into a raffle for one of 50 Kotlin Heroes T-shirts.
Please note that we are not able to ship prizes to any country, state, province, or territory subject to comprehensive OFAC sanctions, including Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, or the Crimea, Donetsk, or Luhansk regions. To see the list of sanctioned countries and regions, please visit this page.
Best of luck to everyone!
Not relevant to me, but please clarify if language translations from other languages into Kotlin are allowed. (And also clarify for language translations on CF in general). It is not explicitly ruled out in the “Rule restricting the use of AI” blog, and it is debatable if it falls under allowed cases.
(Edit): For this contest it is quite clear that it should not be allowed. I personally think language translations in general should not be allowed. The reasoning is too long for me to summarizes in this short comment.
This is probably not allowed, considering the allowed language is Kotlin only. If this were allowed, they would just open it to new languages. Why would you make it Kotlin only then allow people to convert?
just my take
I agree, it will be very silly if it is allowed in this contest in particular.
I was going to say why in general it should not be allowed on CF. I will update my comment as I omitted this.
Yes, that makes sense.
I agree, it should not be allowed.
It's not too long. This is a Kotlin only contest
Automatic translation from other programming languages to Kotlin is not allowed. I've added this information to the announcement.
Thank you for the clarifications.
I find it funny to see that the Intellj Java to Kotlin converter (which is the only other good non-AI translator I can think of), is now banned collaterally — something that had been used for 5 years already ever since the first Kotlin Heroes.
Can it be more publicly announced? Right now, it is hiding in a small portion of an announcement
Especially because previously contestants did do it and were not penalized.
Thank you for your comments and questions! Since the goal of the contest is to encourage participants to try Kotlin, we ask that you do not use AI to solve the problems or translate solutions from other languages.
Since language translation is not allowed, does some know any quick source of learning the basics of kotlin? like in an hour or something