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Recap of First Contest / Request for Feedback

Posted by The Chef on March 15th, 2009 Filed in Contests, Prizes, Winners View Comments

Kitchenettes,

We’d like to thank the hundreds of users from across India who submitted thousands of solutions for our first contest.   We thought it was really exciting, with lead changes happening right until the end.   Congratulations to our winners:

  1. Anshuman Singh – IIIT Hyderabad
  2. Ajay Somani – IIIT Hyderabad
  3. Prateek Karandikar – Indian Statistical Institute

Now we’d like your help in making CodeChef better.  We understand there were things that could be improved and we’d like to ask you a few questions in preparation for our next contest.

  • We’ve heard from many users that we don’t provide enough information when an incorrect solution is submitted.  We are working on improving this.  From a functional standpoint how else can we improve the site?
  • We understand there was some confusion as to when the contest was ending, as well as who will be receiving what prizes, in the next contest this will be made more clear.  Any other information we should have provided?
  • In regards to the contest, was the format (5 questions with a tie-breaker) appropriate?  Was 2 weeks too long?
  • Which problems did you enjoy more or less and why?

Feel free to comment below or send an e-mail to feedback@codechef.com with your responses.

This Friday and Saturday night we will be hosting IIT Roorkee’s Insomnia on CodeChef.   Full details will be announced tomorrow.  We will be back on April 1st, with another CodeChef contest.

Cheers,

The Chef

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  • http://web.iiit.ac.in/~anshuman Anshuman Singh

    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.

  • http://web.iiit.ac.in/~anshuman Anshuman Singh

    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.

  • http://www.codechef.com The Chef

    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!

  • http://www.codechef.com The Chef

    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!

  • http://web.iiit.ac.in/~ajaysomani Ajay Somani

    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 :) .

  • http://web.iiit.ac.in/~ajaysomani Ajay Somani

    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 :) .

  • Prateek Karandikar

    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. ;-)

  • Prateek Karandikar

    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. ;-)

  • Sally

    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.

  • Sally

    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.

  • http://divyekapoor.blogspot.com Divye

    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. :)

  • http://divyekapoor.blogspot.com Divye

    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. :)

  • Prunthaban

    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?

  • Prunthaban

    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?

  • http://www.codechef.com 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

  • http://www.codechef.com 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

  • http://www.codechef.com The Chef

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

  • http://www.codechef.com The Chef

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

  • Prunthaban

    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

  • Prunthaban

    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

  • http://www.codechef.com The Chef

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

  • http://www.codechef.com The Chef

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

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