Kemal's blog

Want to make your contest unofficial? (during contest)
By Kemal, history, 9 years ago, In English

Hey guys!
You can easily make your contest unofficial during contest. To do this you should ask your friend or someone else to give his code. Then submit it (don't change anything). After the contest your contest will be unofficial. No rating loose.

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  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (23)
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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +131 Vote: I do not like it

Another "Codeforces' hidden feature" :)

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +96 Vote: I do not like it

This is only if you have "friends" that would support cheating.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +77 Vote: I do not like it

    Or who have two account in codeforces

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +104 Vote: I do not like it

      That sounds like a good way to get both accounts banned, then.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

Unless your friend's solution fails system test.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    I once had two solutions skipped in a contest. One of them was wrong. I didn't cheat either of them, and I don't know who cheated from me lol

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +45 Vote: I do not like it

If you use that two times in a row, you will get banned like my friend _Luna.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

One does not simply loose his rating.

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

Is there exist a danger of getting banned? :v

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -27 Vote: I do not like it

Just Study hard and you don't loose your rating. If you do as in this blog, you will have no progress.

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it +36 Vote: I do not like it

The problem is, IMO, the more you think about rating, the worse your performance is. Let's think about this, when you do your training, you think about the problem alone, think about how to solve the problem, and the more you train, the better your problem solving skill, you have trained your brain to work that way. However, in contest time, your focus is different, you think about how to improve your rating, instead of focusing on solving those problems in front of you, which also means, your brain is thinking differently, comparing with your training time, as the result, you can never bring the best of you in contest time.

In the long run, this runaway strategy can only make you worse!

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

    During some contests I think about the rating (or the leaderboard), during other contests I don't. I didn't notice any correlation between this thinking and my performance. I guess it decreases my focus but it motivates me.

    When I can't solve a problem I manage to think "solving it would move me to the X-th place, awesome", instead of "I will be so low if I don't solve it". Well, in CF rounds I don't really calculate which place I would get with one more problem. But why shouldn't I take a look at the friends standings and think "hah, I can beat John"? Damn, I want to get better place than John. I will solve this problem.

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

      It is very hard to tell, I just told what is working for me.

      Your point makes a lot of sense, my question is rushing to solve a problem is better or, patiently solve a problem is better? Is adding some adrenaline helping you to solve more problem? I am not sure, to my own experience, dealing with this kind of stimulation is just like playing with knife, with appropriate amount, it can help, and, it also can give you a lot of trouble. For example, you are trying to beat John by solving problem E, after 20 minutes, you cannot think of any solution, you go back and check whether John has solved any, and you found out that he has submitted a wrong solution, now, you start to feel stressful .... Just one example of how it can affect your performance. If, you just try to solve problem E, and problem E alone, will you need to go through all those risks? Maybe some restrictions you set with yourself can help here, like only check the leader board each hour or so can help? To me, I just try to avoid those headache.

      Thank you for your sharing, it is nice to hear from a red :)

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

      About last part — for me it usually sounds like "if John can solve this problem — it should be easy, I can solve it too", and it often helps :)

      You know, when you are looking at standings and thinking "I need to be in top-X to qualify for next round / win t-shirt" and act corresponding to it — that's not the same as doing stuff like "I usually perform bad in contests from this author, I'd better miss it this time".

      In fact I know quite a lot contestants with low rating who are doing stuff like "Problemset looks weird/I can't solve them, I'll better miss this round", several violets/yellows and not a single red. I don't know — is there some connection between it, or it is simply harder for reds to do like this (you'll have to check first 2-3 problems, not a single one), or they just don't tell about doing such stuff :)

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Your last part is what I noticed too, starting from green, usually, I just can solve first two problems, and to me, problem C is always an unbeatable mountain. I am scared and always want to give up without even try. However, after a lot of training, I have a good approximation about the difficulty of C, so I get more confident and can constantly solve it. Then, problem D and E (Div 2) become a problem, and I go back to training ...

        All of those feeling can be controlled and overcome by effort and proper training, but, a harder challenge is how to control your emotion in contest time. One of my solution now is making the training experience as close as contest experience, and avoid unnecessary action, which can bring you unexpected effect. As I noticed, when you are stress, every action can greatly affect you, comparing with normal situation.

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        I am guilty of what you said in the last paragraph. I have a plan for it, but it doesn't always work-Solve div2A without looking at other problems. This way, I can't miss the round anymore. But if I can't pass pretests of A, I don't have a solid plan of what to do next. That's where panic sets in. And devastatingly, when I am in full panic mode, my systems shut down, meaning I go to I Dont Care mode, and I am so used to doing this to avoid anxiety and shame of failing at something I expect to be easy that I end up not caring about rating drop and I leave the contest, with a bunch of wrong attempts at A. So, to summarize, my contests largely depend upon whether or not I solve A easily :(

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        "About last part — for me it usually sounds like "if John can solve this problem — it should be easy, I can solve it too", and it often helps :)" — whenever I have such a thought that is a sign that this contest is completely ruined for me :P.

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

        And regarding to this: "In fact I know quite a lot contestants with low rating who are doing stuff like "Problemset looks weird/I can't solve them, I'll better miss this round", several violets/yellows and not a single red." — I have high ambitions, so it happened in past to me that I thought about a problem "Uhh, this problem is so ugly to code, I give up", but right now I rather think "Since I want to be the very best, if someone is able to code it, why should I not be able?"

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

If you do bad enough to lose rating, you deserve to lose your rating. You can lie to the world but not to yourself! CF rounds are not an end, but rather a means to making yourself a better coder. Good luck protecting your rating! :)

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +65 Vote: I do not like it

It is easy way to make your account unofficial.

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