Tahlil's blog

Wrong and hard to understand problem statement
By Tahlil, 14 years ago, In English
Wrong problem statement is now almost a regular incident .I hope this will be fixed soon.

And i don't know if anyone else feels this but problem statements are getting hard to understand for me. If its not my problem than i think this also should be fixed .


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14 years ago, # |
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I totally agree with you. Last contest's problem  no. C was very hard to understand. 


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  • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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    Yes. And Problem B was also..203 in base 9, that caused me to think, how to get 203 in base. And I forgot to refresh my page for long time.

    And finally I had to ask  the admin about that(203 in base 9 ??).

    So, guys whenever you have problem in understanding any part of the problem , instantly go to Ask a question, I m sure admins will be there to help you out! :D

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    • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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      yeah that wrong problem statement caused me 4 wrong answers and 1 hr of time :(
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14 years ago, # |
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vai,plasailam.totally agree with u.c number ki koilo kisui bojhlam na
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14 years ago, # |
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Its getting frequent that problem statement of Codeforces is very tough  to understand in English as a foreign language.

Please try to solve this problem quickly.

Thanks to Codeforces team.

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  • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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    I wonder whether Google translate could be more trusted for this or the Codeforces team :P .
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    • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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      Russian to English translation

      Vasya bought the complete works of the famous poet berlyandskogo Petit in n vols. Volumes are numbered from 1 to n. Vasya decided to put them on one shelf, which was just n free places, numbered from 1 to n. He believes that to put the book just in order - not nice. Vasya wants to minimize the number of divisors of the arrangement - such positive integers i, that for at least one j (1 ≤ j ≤ n) holds: j mod i = 0, and at the same time p (j) mod i = 0, where p (j) - the volume number, which stands for the j-th place, and the mod - the taking of the remainder of the division. Naturally, one that can hold exactly one place and one place is exactly the same volume.

      Help Basil - Find the balance with the lowest number of divisors.


      It seems niether of them can be trusted. :P

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      • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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        But certainly google translate seemed better in this case.

        BTW this was PROBLEM C.

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14 years ago, # |
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I also agree with Kalkin . Translation from Russian to English is not perfect [ i mean it could be done better may be ]. Often I feel Google translator as a better option. I like the Codeforces very much. And now-a-days I often feel like I should learn Russian language in my coming semester break. :)
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  • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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    I also like Codeforces, specially the little arrows. :)

    The arrows are really cute.

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14 years ago, # |
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I read round #46 statements. I read English statement first and only after I understand it, I checked Russian statement. Problem C is OK. Really.

What part of it you did not understand? Maybe we should discuss yours misunderstandings so we can prevent it from happening again? 

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  • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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    I've tried to repeat your result and read the statements.

    A.
    "The rules of the game are as follows: those who play for the first time, that is Vasya is the sleuth, he should investigate a "crime" and find out what is happening."

    I didn't understand it. Really.

    Ok, in this problem statement we can just skip it and still solve the problem.

    B.
    Well, i've got it, but I'm not sure that anybody can get it, the English there is even worse than mine.
    The English for "цифра" is "digit", not "number",
    The English for "строка" is "line", not "letter" ("Input: The first letter contains..."),
    and so on.
    (Besides, I can't find out from the problem statement,
    if the test "AB CD" is valid,
    but it's not a special feature of English statement.)

    C.
    Surprisingly, much better than previous statement.
    I didn't like the phrase "it does not do to arrange the book simply according to their order", and I didn't find the phrase about the
    shelf (it is present in Russian statement) but the statement still can be understood.

    D, E.
    Hmm, may be as I read these statements, I begin to understand
    that special СodeForces Еnglish better...
    Didn't discover any bugs in D and E :)
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14 years ago, # |
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I was also Confused in Problem C in during Contset time.The language are so difficult to understand....we hope as soon as we will get the better English Problem Statement.........
        Thanks Codeforces Team
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  • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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    What exactly you found difficult in problem C? I can explain it for you so you will understand statements next time?

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    • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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      I cant explain exactly which part was difficultly written. But i couldnt understand the output part and the part where they explain p(j). But when someone explained me that than the problem statement seemed ok. but now i gave that statement another div1 coder and he was failed to understand it too. And the coder who explained me the problem statement he spent one hour in the contest to understand it and then he solved it.

      I know i couldn't answer your question properly but thats all i can say now.
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    • 14 years ago, # ^ |
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      I wonder if it was translated by the girl who used to translate problem statements at the very beginning of by some other person.
      I can easily understand problem statement, though I might understand what is the reason why so many people are confused. Several sentences are very 'russian'-spoiled. Like

      "the positive integers i such that for at least one j (1 ≤ j ≤ n) is true both."

      Instead of "is true both" I'd say "the following holds" or "the following statements are true". I'm not sure if "is true both" is grammatically correct at all.

      "and in one place can stand exactly one volume."

      I believe verb cannot be placed before noun. Correct would be "and only one volume can occupy one place".

      I can be wrong, my English knowledge is not so awesome. I'm just guessing..


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14 years ago, # |
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why my contribution =-2 !!!
Sorry i don't know where to post my question 
Thanks at all 

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14 years ago, # |
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its confused the output part.......
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