There has been a lot of buzz about alternative formats for programming contests in the last few years. I began to ask myself: why don't we have IOI-style problems in Codeforces official rounds?
The IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics) pattern, as distinct from conventional competition, focuses more on intricate and sophisticated problems. It requires contest participants to strategically think and search deeper into analysis of the problems. It instills creativity and thinking outside of the box, which, from my perspective, could be absolutely interesting and good for participants.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that inclusion of IOI-style tasks would be interesting and add to the experience for Codeforces users? What are the pros and cons you can identify with this proposal? I would appreciate your feedback on this!
There is IOI-style problems.
XVIII Open Olympiad in Informatics - Final Stage, Day 2 (Unrated, Online Mirror, IOI rules)
Sorry, but this is an unrated contest
won't it be too difficult for beginners. Because as a beginner it"s really hard to solve even 800 rated questions and if the contests become harder many newbies with great potential will loose motivation and in the worst case scenario they might end their journey at the very beginning
I meant that the IOI style would only be used in div2 — div1 ,and yes IOI style will be very hard for newcomers
I am a newbi but i participate in div 2 contests
That second paragraph isn't reality, it's mostly just advertisement for OI. I know at least 2 problems that appeared in IOI that had appeared years before in cf rounds and I don't know many IOI problems. https://codeforces.net/problemset/problem/436/E has appeared in one of the 2 last IOIs disguised as a tree problem and IOI shoes appeared with lower N in div2. When solving IOI problems I think more than half of the time it feels like "conventional competition" just with bigger statements.
Perhaps you don't encounter problem pairs like that because they usually don't appear in div2?
Yes, I didn't have any such problems since basically I only solve div2
Having more regular OI style contests could be really fun — I enjoy this type of contests and problems, and I think it would be nice to have a different kind of contest now and then.
However, there are two things that must be considered:
Quality: I think something I really enjoy about OI problems is their usually high quality. Although I'm not entirely sure about the problem preparation process, there's definitely a lot of work done to ensure that. Would doing so much work for a single problem be sustainable? (I'm not saying that the current problems aren't good, but the amount of work needed to prepare most OI problems is probably impossible when it comes to regular contests)
Time: A typical OI takes about 4 or 5 hours. Last summer, when I was preparing for OIs, doing a VC took a big part of the day, and I could only do it because I didn't have school. How many people will actually have the time to attend such a contest (also considering different time zones)?
How can these problems be solved while minimizing differences from the usual OI format?
You can do it in parts, let's say in Kazakhstan contests are usually held at 19:35 and as you say, IOI contests often last 4-5 hours, and that is, you can do 2.5 hours on the first day, and others on the second day (in the first day there are 3 problems, in the second 3 others)
Wouldn't that be too far from the usual OI format? Especially since there are subtasks so some contestants will need a lot of time even for just 3 problems?
Yes, then you can also divide into 2, 2 tasks on the first day and 2 on the second for 5 hours 4 tasks are very good
That's even more different from a typical OI style contest, though