Hello everybody! Yet another cheating post is here. I will not shittalk a random guy on using ChatGPT — I am sure codeforces is full of those. What I want to do instead is to emphasize The Question and to understand, whether do we have an answer or we don't. As a 1000-guy, I feel the ubearable responsibility to drop my 2 cents onto the table! See you below!! \_(^_^)_/
Introduction
I would never write this if not the (surprise-surprise) rapid advancement of AI models (especially in CP). AI is getting really and really better at solving the stuff it was not supposed to. And clearly(for me) it will eventually outplay every human being -- like it was in chess/dota not so long ago. And to those who think "people still continue to watch chess/dota matches": imagine how much people would watch CP-matches :)
The Question
Back to CP. The Question is: why are you doing CP now? It has different meanings for 2 categories of users: the ones who are better than free-to-use models nowadays (I suppose it means above 2000) and the ones who are not(but of course about to!!): below 2000.
Consider this if you are <2000:
It is MUCH harder for you to get above 2000 than 5 years ago. There are A LOT of cheaters using free llms(which are probably at least as good as you) who can and will get EASILY ABOVE YOU on the leaderboard. Guess how good should you be to outplay them.
There still are great contests where you can't cheat (or at least a it's very hard): offline contests with strict rules and smart organizers. And I think you can actually consider playing CF as a way to prepare for them. Just do not cry when you solve more problems than you thought you ever could and get a +2 rating.
And do not write in comments things like "cheating was always a thing" -- it was never at this scale, and it was never this easy. Basically devaluation of both rating and contest places. Does the leaderboard has a meaning still?
Consider this if you are >=2000:
- Read consideration for those who are <2000
- Suppose that free-to-use AI is gonna be far better than you in somewhat like a decade.
I feel like we shouldn't care about the cheaters and just try our best. Sure, AI is much better than many of us, but if you level up and do better, you will get to >= 2000. I think someone's skill is much more important than someone's rating. What good will your rating do when your skill will be put to use?
In general, we are all here to develop our way of thinking, so rankings don’t really mean much if you’re learning something new from every contest.
People don't just watch chess; millions of them still play it too. Rating isn't the only thing that matters.
Remember: your rating is just a couple bytes on a computer, what really matters is your personal growth.
The main thing you should consider is if you enjoy solving problems or not. The rest doesn't matter.
Also, anticheating tools will eventually be developed, it's a matter of time.
i used to yap alot like this, now i don't care.