Hello,
First of all, Thanks a lot for a great contest. The best thing is that we would continue to witness more of these (hopefully).
Regarding this contest, I personally feel that 15 days was too much. With 15 days, one cannot be expected to devote every second to the contest and henceforth the contest looses its intensity. It would be better if the contest is a 24 hour event or better yet, a 5 day event with tougher problems.
Thanks for a good problemset. I especially liked the tie-breaker problem . I hope this trend is not broken.
Eagerly looking forward to future contests.

Hello,
First of all, Thanks a lot for a great contest. The best thing is that we would continue to witness more of these (hopefully).
Regarding this contest, I personally feel that 15 days was too much. With 15 days, one cannot be expected to devote every second to the contest and henceforth the contest looses its intensity. It would be better if the contest is a 24 hour event or better yet, a 5 day event with tougher problems.
Thanks for a good problemset. I especially liked the tie-breaker problem . I hope this trend is not broken.
Eagerly looking forward to future contests.

Hi Anshuman,
Thanks for your feedback. The idea of having a two week contest is so that we can encourage maximum participation, it is not expected that you spend the entire two weeks on the contest. In a 24 hour contest, some people may have other engagements that prevent them from participating. Appreciate your feedback, we will wait to hear from other people and decide the format/length of time for April’s contest.
Cheers!

Hi Anshuman,
Thanks for your feedback. The idea of having a two week contest is so that we can encourage maximum participation, it is not expected that you spend the entire two weeks on the contest. In a 24 hour contest, some people may have other engagements that prevent them from participating. Appreciate your feedback, we will wait to hear from other people and decide the format/length of time for April’s contest.
Cheers!

Hi Organizers,

I have given most of my feedback through a mail to your feedback id. I’d still like to answer your questions here.

1. Although everyone thinks that you should provide more information when an incorrect solution is submitted. But I think this can also lead to people figuring out the test cases etc and other details which might not be a good idea. For example, in a tie breaker problem in march contest, Figuring out the value of k in some of the tests was very important for me to figure out a good strategy. It may not be a good thing.

2. I believe apart from contest duration, there was no particular problem in the contest and it was very well organized.

4. I also enjoyed the tie breaker problem and the “guess the number” problem . Tie breaker problem was good because no standard algorithm (as far as I remember ) was directly applicable and we had to figure out the details from the basics .

Hi Organizers,

I have given most of my feedback through a mail to your feedback id. I’d still like to answer your questions here.

1. Although everyone thinks that you should provide more information when an incorrect solution is submitted. But I think this can also lead to people figuring out the test cases etc and other details which might not be a good idea. For example, in a tie breaker problem in march contest, Figuring out the value of k in some of the tests was very important for me to figure out a good strategy. It may not be a good thing.

2. I believe apart from contest duration, there was no particular problem in the contest and it was very well organized.

4. I also enjoyed the tie breaker problem and the “guess the number” problem . Tie breaker problem was good because no standard algorithm (as far as I remember ) was directly applicable and we had to figure out the details from the basics .

As I said on the feedback email address, I enjoyed the contest.

Programming contests generally don’t give much feedback on wrong answers. Here the ability to make unlimited submissions, and get immediate feedback, is itself a lot of feedback. My guess is that people who are not accustomed to how programming contests work were the ones asking for more feedback on WA.

More clarity on how the scores (in case of the relative scoring problem) and times are calculated will be appreciated. Eg, what does “your program ran for 1.36 seconds” mean? Given that many test cases are involved… Is there some kind of (weighted) averaging involved? Or some min/max?

24 hours will be way too short. It will be tiring too, as people will have to take a day off to do just this. Right now this didn’t interfere with daily activities. 15 days is ok, though perhaps just a bit on the longer side. Relative scoring problems can take a long time, and thinking about them over a few days and improving one’s solution is fun.

And, avoid score functions which divide by zero.

As I said on the feedback email address, I enjoyed the contest.

Programming contests generally don’t give much feedback on wrong answers. Here the ability to make unlimited submissions, and get immediate feedback, is itself a lot of feedback. My guess is that people who are not accustomed to how programming contests work were the ones asking for more feedback on WA.

More clarity on how the scores (in case of the relative scoring problem) and times are calculated will be appreciated. Eg, what does “your program ran for 1.36 seconds” mean? Given that many test cases are involved… Is there some kind of (weighted) averaging involved? Or some min/max?

24 hours will be way too short. It will be tiring too, as people will have to take a day off to do just this. Right now this didn’t interfere with daily activities. 15 days is ok, though perhaps just a bit on the longer side. Relative scoring problems can take a long time, and thinking about them over a few days and improving one’s solution is fun.

And, avoid score functions which divide by zero.

Hi,
I liked the contest and the problems were great. However, it would be appreciable if the scores are based on the difficulty level of the problem (meaning you could introduce the difficulty format).
Although the problems were tough, but considering the duration of the contest, it would be good to have some more problems to work on. The idea of 5-day/week long contest is nice too (which may be held more than once a month ;D )
Regarding the feedback, the current format is good and no more feedback is required.

Hi,
I liked the contest and the problems were great. However, it would be appreciable if the scores are based on the difficulty level of the problem (meaning you could introduce the difficulty format).
Although the problems were tough, but considering the duration of the contest, it would be good to have some more problems to work on. The idea of 5-day/week long contest is nice too (which may be held more than once a month ;D )
Regarding the feedback, the current format is good and no more feedback is required.

Can the contest problems now be made open for submissions? I haven’t had time to attempt all the problems during the contest, but I would definitely like to have a go at them once I have more time on my hands.

Can the contest problems now be made open for submissions? I haven’t had time to attempt all the problems during the contest, but I would definitely like to have a go at them once I have more time on my hands.

Hi,

Looking forward to compete in future contests.
Where can I find the rules page?
Who are eligible to receive prizes? Who all can compete? College grads, professionals, etc are allowed?

Hi,

Looking forward to compete in future contests.
Where can I find the rules page?
Who are eligible to receive prizes? Who all can compete? College grads, professionals, etc are allowed?

Hi,
CodeChef contests will be held on the first of every month and are open to everyone. For now, prizes will only be available to users in India. Each contest has different rules which can be found on their individual landing pages. Click on compete for more information about these contests.
Cheers,
The Chef

Hi,
CodeChef contests will be held on the first of every month and are open to everyone. For now, prizes will only be available to users in India. Each contest has different rules which can be found on their individual landing pages. Click on compete for more information about these contests.
Cheers,
The Chef

Hi Divye,
The contest problems will be available in the practice arena by the end of the week.
Cheers,
The Chef

Hi Divye,
The contest problems will be available in the practice arena by the end of the week.
Cheers,
The Chef

I am wondering why are you doing these contests? What is the end result Directi expects out of all this?
As a competitor it is great fun and a gift for all of us. But I am just wondering how it aligns with your long term goal, etc

I am wondering why are you doing these contests? What is the end result Directi expects out of all this?
As a competitor it is great fun and a gift for all of us. But I am just wondering how it aligns with your long term goal, etc

Hi Prunthaban, Check out our CEO’s corner: http://www.codechef.com/ceoscorner/.
Cheers,
The Chef

Hi Prunthaban, Check out our CEO’s corner: http://www.codechef.com/ceoscorner/.
Cheers,
The Chef