MEDAA's blog

By MEDAA, history, 4 hours ago, In English

In today's round Codeforces Round 996 (Div. 2), the gap between problem difficulties was hilariously wide, according to clist. The last two problems are rated approximately 3000 and 3500, which clearly means that they are not suitable for participants rated below 2100.

I think this makes the round literally consist of only four problems, where your performance depends mostly on speed. According to Carrot, the performance of the second-place participant was LGM, who solved four problems. There are also participants who solved four problems and achieved a CM-level performance, which is very weird.

I am not complaining only about today's contest, but it serves as a great example of the unbalanced difficulty seen in recent contests. This imbalance particularly affects CPers rated between 1600 — 2100, who do not have the opportunity for rated contests except for div 2 contests, making us have fewer opportunities to achieve a positive delta, as luck starts to play a significant role in determining our rating.

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3 hours ago, # |
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It's honestly not very obvious to me why so few people have solved problem E. I'm not saying this is a simple task, I haven't solved it either (I really don't like this kind of task), but judging by the analysis, this is a common task a little more complicated than d2E, definitely not deserving of the complexity of 3000

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    3 hours ago, # ^ |
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    Let us neglect the 3000, it is still complicated for a < 2100 participant

    Also, note that the only one who solved it in div2 was a grandmaster. XD

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      3 hours ago, # ^ |
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      yep, I agree it is hard even for some 2100+ guys, but still solvable. Also I would like to have more 2300+ tasks in div2s, rather then 2700+. But challenging tasks create strong programmers)

      Wow, only GM solved this? This is really strange)

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3 hours ago, # |
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GPT era

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33 minutes ago, # |
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I am still puzzled about the difficulty of D. I could't find out a complete correct sol during the contest with thinking the situation is too complicated. Maybe I am so bad at greedy. How could so much people solve this problem? Could anyone introduce some similar greedy problems?

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22 minutes ago, # |
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"who do not have the opportunity for rated contests except for div 2 contests, making us have fewer opportunities to achieve a positive delta".