Coming out of a relationship isn’t the most pleasing feeling. We had just ended our 3-year-old relationship with our ever dependable server and entered into a new one with the cloud. Just like all new relationships, we too were embracing every moment of this new commitment. And hoping that things go nicely. It wasn’t too long, before it was put through the first test during May Challenge 2013. And we did come out unscathed.
The May Challenge 2013 was an exciting contest for us for more than one reason. Yes, it was the first successful contest on our new infrastructure. And, it was the first time when ACRush didn’t win the long challenge that he has participated in. In fact, he was not even among the top three. It is not often that you see legends being defeated. Gentlemen from Romania, North Korea, and Belarus, namely mugurelionut, scli, and gennady.korotkevich eclipsed the dominant ACRush. It is always good to see competition, a healthy one. And this has already set a nice build-up for all our future long challenges. We all know that he will strike back. And that was not the only highlight in the rank charts. We had reason to celebrate in the two Indian participants, balajiganapath and pulkit being among the top ten global winners! A big round of applause for all the winners.
The May Challenge 2013 began with a platter of eight juicy problems. And the users were on to them right from the beginning. Going by the initial submission trend, we found that, contrary to the saying, there is indeed a lot in the “NAME,” as our NAME1 and NAME2 problems saw flurry of submissions. The first one to get over the NAME1 mystery was manish05, who cracked the problem in the sixth minute of the contest. While most of the users were busy cracking up NAMEs, some others were seen taking Field Trip. And enjoying it quite well. Among the early boarders on the field trip train, there were the biggies like ACRush, mugurelionut, and anton_lunyov. Apparently, mugurelionut enjoyed the trip the most. While, our users were enjoying the flavors, our problem setters were busy spicing up the remaining two problems for the contest.
The ninth and tenth problems were added on third and fourth day of the contest respectively. The tenth problem was the challenge problem and it proved to be a great one as well. Appreciation from all quarters came for pieguy’s Password Cracking Challenge and participants complemented his hard work with theirs. And everyone was going all out to make the most of it. At one point we had scli and mugurelionut having a score of almost a perfect ten, enjoying the first and second spot. mugurelionut continued from there and successfully defended his stay at the top till the very end in spite of some stiff competition. Now, let’s take you through the rank tables that incidentally features some of the biggest names ever on CodeChef!
Drum roll please!
The International Top Ten includes:
1. mugurelionut
2. scli
3. gennady.korotkevich
4. ACRush
5. anton_lunyov
6. Oleg
7. llj_bash
8. forifchen
9. dkac
10. sy2006
The Indian Top Twenty includes:
1. balajiganapath
2. pulkit
3. djdolls
4. anudeep2011
5. viv001
6. ishanbhatnagar
7. sandipan
8. deepankarak
9. nims11
10. prakashgayasen
11. vineetonrole
12. nishantrk
13. akash4983
14. ka4tik
15. n2n_
16. sandesh_deshu
17. darkshadows
18. manish05
19. ritesh_gupta
20. anunay_arunav
Now, with the very exciting and much appreciated Challenge problem, it is only fair that the participants with the highest score for this challenge problem (not in the above list) are also rewarded.
Global:
1. samjay
2. natsugiri
3. inseder
Indian:
1. averma14
2. avatarroku
3. strong_fast
Cheers to all the winners!!
The May Challenge 2013 also brought us the highest number of submissions in any long contest. So, along with the star studded rank charts, there were a few other reasons to be happy.
Let us take you through some of those reasons in terms of the stats for the contest.
Boy, that’s a lot of submissions on only ten problems! All thanks to our meticulous problem setters, testers and editorials and not to forget, you. For May Challenge 2013, the problem setting panel featured Shanjingbo, Vinayak Garg, Manish Kumar, Shalini Sah, Vamsi Kavala, Kaushik Iska, Roman Rubanenko, David Stolp and Tuan Anh. This time the responsibility of testing was shared between David Stolp & Pradeep Mathias, who did a commendable job! And Shilp Gupta churned out the delicious editorials, go check them now here. If you did not notice, we had two debutants in our problem-setting panel in Manish Kumar and Shalini Sah. Join us to welcome them aboard. These wonderfully talented individuals can be accredited for the brilliant May Challenge 2013 we all enjoyed. So, a big thank to all of them.
Now, while we bask in the glory of one more successful contest and embark on the journey with our new infrastructure, we must not forget the hiccups. It wasn’t grave, but it forced us to extend the contest duration by 1 hour towards the end. It was caused because of the unexpectedly large number of submissions queued up for the challenge problem. Everyone wanted to better their previous scores and hence were making multiple submissions every minute. This made the judge’s task very hard and consequently affected its response time as it tried its best to recompute the score of everyone on each submission. You would agree that the task is not envious. We had to restrict the allowed number of submissions to 1 in every 180 seconds for every user to bring down the queue. It wasn’t a very easy decision on our part, but had to be taken at the moment. We have now enforced this limit across the whole website with a reduced restriction of 1 submission in every 30 seconds. We felt this is the least we could do to help the judge server. After this small glitch, things went smoothly and the May Challenge 2013 came to end.
After the memorable May Challenge 2013, we are all set for the May Cook-Off 2013. So, don’t forget to join us on 19th May 2013 at 21:30 IST to taste the delicacies from problem setter Abdullah Al Mahmud, with tester Shilp Gupta and editorialist Pradeep Mathias.
Do share your feedback, suggestions or just drop in a mail to see how we are doing at feedback@codechef.com. We love hearing from you people.
Till next time, adios everybody.
See you at the contests.
Thanks,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
There are plenty of reasons to cheer for April. If you are a student, it marks the beginning of long summer vacations and if you are a CodeChef user, it brings the monthly programming challenges. Those are the two reasons we can think of. We’re sure you have more. Now, we know it has been a while since the April contests got over and it’s a bit too late to publish this post. We regret the delay. And would try and be more punctual in future. For now, let us take you back to the April contests and relive the chills and thrills that they witnessed.
The April Challenge 2013 had Vamsi Kavala, Jay Pandya, Bruno Oliveira, Kaushik Iska, Roman Rubanenko, Anton Lunyov, Vitaliy Herasymiv, Tom Chen, and David Stolp aboard as our problem setters. While, the problem-setting panel had some familiar names, there were two new ones in Tom Chen and Jay Pandya, who were contributing their first problem for CodeChef. A big welcome to both of them. Hiroto Sekido handled problem testing, while the editorials came from the omnipresent Anton Lunyov. The problem setters did a superb job with the problems. We kicked off the April Challenge 2013 with nine problems, as the tenth one needed some garnishing and hence, it was served a bit later. However, that did not affect the proceedings of the contest. And the submissions flowed in right from the beginning.
MAXDIFF was the first problem to receive an accepted submission followed by LEVY. Inside first fifteen minutes of the contest, we had received submissions on five of our problems. Not many were AC, though. But that indicated the fervor of the participants. Right from the first submission, the race to the top was on. And the participants went all out to make it to the peak. It was clear with the constantly changing names at the top of rank tables. From comparatively novice aurinegro, to the experienced viv001, we saw many different names acquiring the top spot at one point or the other.
While, there were some familiar names featuring at the top, there were some not so familiar names as well. It is sheer pleasure to have new names fighting for the top slot. These twists and twirls at the top kept us all guessing till the very end. An interesting turn of event was djdolls’ claim to the top of Indian charts from the very early stage of the contest to the final leg and then disappearing completely. We were shocked to not see him among the winners. However, the other names on the rank charts did made us happy.
Here are the final key stats for April Challenge 2013 in totality.
After those staggering figures, let us have a look at winner tables.
The International rank table features:
The Indian rank tables had:
Now, let’s move on to our special achievers club and congratulate the users with highest scores for Challenge problem in April Challenge 2013.
Global:
Indian:
Big congratulations to all the winners.
The numbers combined with the rank tables reflects the gratifying response to April Challenge 2013. This keeps us all pumped up to bring better contests and shows the great work done by our panel of problem setters, tester and editorialist. So, a special round of applause for them. You can always share your thoughts and opinions about the contest with us. We love reading and replying to them. Also, check out the editorials for the April Challenge 2013 here.
By the time the April Challenge 2013 got over we reached mid April, and the preparation for the April Cook-Off was on. Vitaliy Herasymiv chopped the problem set for the cook-off, while Hiroto Sekido took care of problem testing. The editorials came from the kitchen of Pradeep Mathias. The April Cook-Off started in style with first accepted submission coming inside three minutes on AMMEAT by aircube. As we moved into the April Cook-Off, the contest started heating up, with seasoned players like anton_lunyov, KADR, and yeputons going all out to claim the top spot.
The constant changing names atop the rank charts indicated a healthy contest. However, pros like anton_lunyov and yeputons dominated the rank charts for larger duration. Nevertheless, there were instances of their dominance being challenged by the likes of dzhulgakov, who was last seen in our Silver Jubilee Cook-off. We love such comebacks. The nicely balanced problem set gave everyone enough excitement, from the very start till the end. After a lot of toppling at the top of the rank tables, dzhulgakov emerged as a clear winner for the contest followed by anton_lunyov and yeputons as first and second runner up respectively.
Now let us take you through the rank list of April Cook-off, featuring some familiar as well as some not-so-familiar names.
A big round of applause for all the winners, and for everyone who was a part of our April Cook-off.
Let alone a couple of twists in the rank tables, the April Cook-Off was a rather calm contest with everybody enjoying the problem set to the fullest. The numbers for April Cook-off were not mind blowingly high, but were satisfying enough. Here are all the key stats for you.
Overall, the April Cook-off was a smooth contest with good participation and performance. We enjoyed every bit of the contest and hope that you did so as well. We would like to thank our problem setter, tester, and editorialist for yet another successful contest. The editorials of the contest have been uploaded, so go check them now here in case you haven’t done that yet.
That is all from all of us here at CodeChef. We hope you are enjoying the May Challenge 2013. If you have any queries, suggestions, or feedbacks, you can always shoot them to us at feedback@codechef.com.
See you all at the contests
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
This post is going live today, but do not let that fool you. 
We had just turned four the other day, and let us tell you once again that these have been four good years. And we celebrated too. With the party behind our back, it was now time for us to focus on our future engagements. Being the beginning of a fresh year for us, we thought of presenting some new exciting changes to you. Let us take you through our March Long Challenge 2013, which had one of these changes.
Beginning on our Budday, the March Challenge 2013 was decorated by our problem setters xcwgf666, pieguy, vamsi_kavala, witua, iscsi, pieguy, Rubanenko, tuananh93, vinayak garg, and kaushik_iska, while anton_lunyov and gamabunta played the tester and editorialist. This time around, we introduced the ‘Interactive Problem’ for the first time in our long challenge. And with that, we had things in place for a glittering contest.
Our expectations were slightly held back, as we had only eight problems to start with. But soon, we saw a flurry of submissions on APPROX and TOTR. The initial frenzy was further fueled up with the addition of ZENCALC and LECOINS. With all the problems on the platter, we were set to enjoy the ride. And so it began. The submissions steadied and sanity ensured.
However, it was difficult to not miss the absence of our regular winner ACRush. What this also meant was an opportunity for the rest to stake a claim on the top spot. And indeed, there were people going all out to carve a place for themselves atop the rank table. We saw scli and balajiganapath dominating the global and Indian charts almost all through the contest. The rank tables were pretty much the same right from the beginning until the end.
The top ten international winners are:
The top twenty Indian winners are:
A special mention to the users with highest scores for the Challenge problem (apart from the winners). For those who do not know why, you may find more about it here.
Global:
Indian:
A big round of applause for all the winners! The overall numbers this time around were not as high as we have seen in the past, which might reflect upon the difficulty level of the problems. After a prolonged discussion with our panel, we arrived at the conclusion that some problems like ZENCALC and LECOINS were easier than what the contestants found out and our panel felt that more number of contestants should have solved them. Delay in uploading the problems could also have been a reason for lesser success rate of these problems. Do feel free to tell us whether you agree or disagree with our panel. And also have a look at the editorials here.
The stats of the contest are as under:
An incident worth mentioning, is a case of reported cheating during the contest. We investigated and found some users guilty. Needless to say that it made us very sad. Cheating kills a contest. It spoils the hard work put by so many people who are involved in the making of a contest. We do not consider ourselves holding any moral authority over anyone and hence we have not been taking any strong action against the cases of cheating in the past. However, to not spoil the efforts of the people involved, the least that we can do and will be doing is to suspend a user from participating in any future contest to be hosted on CodeChef, if we can find any kind of suspicious behavior from his/her account. And it will be disappointing for us to do so. We believe that the fun lies in playing it fair and we urge each one of you to play honestly and have fun while doing so. And, please report to us any cases of malpractice that you may find happening during a contest.
After the tough-to-crack Long challenge, we started sailing towards the Cook-Off featuring Tuan Anh donning the problem-setting hat for his very first Cook-Off. Our go-to-guy Anton Lunyov was in his elements in doing what he does best and Shilp Gupta wore the editorialist hat once again. That formed the star cast for an enticing Sunday and we were certainly excited!
This contest had one major fix that (happily for us) none of you noticed. In the break between the Long Challenge and the Cook-Off, our team was working hard to fix the connectivity issue of heavy load that has given us company very loyally since the last few months. This time, the team had managed to replicate the load and nail down the problem of lost connectivity during high load. So, with excitement, there was this nervous anticipation and crossed, nail bitten fingers. After all, high load problems may be fixed off line but they can only be tested live.
As things were about to go smooth, the approaching Holi, and April fool’s day fever caught us up, without us even knowing it. Hence, the unintended mischief at the beginning of the contest. However, we did respond in a jiffy and the real contest started in about 7 minutes from the scheduled start. And we wished that there wouldn’t be anymore.
The debutant problem setter Tuan Anh cooked up some absorbing problems that we hope pleased your taste buds. While we had TAVISUAL attracting flurry of submissions, there were some tough nuts to crack in TABUS and TABISHOP. Overall, the problem set seemed to be a well-balanced one after quite a few very hard Cook-Offs, which was a welcome change.
While, submissions kept growing, we had two of our problems unsolved until the very last stage of the contest. We got the first user to solve all the five problems in uwi, without any penalties, followed by EgorK in the last minutes of the contest. The numbers, though not mind boggling, did suggest that it was a well fought one. Let us take you through them.
The final figures of the contest are:
Just as the nature of the contest, the rank table for our March Cook-off was also rather steady with no major twists and turns. Securing the podium by the end of the contest was uwi, as the contest winner, followed by EgorK and yeputons as the first & second runner up. The final standings for the contest are here:
The March Cook-Off 2013 was filled with healthy competition and a well balanced and testing problem set which are the key ingredients of any successful contest. For that, we would like to thank our superb panel of problem setter, problem tester and our editorialist. And more importantly, to you all for making it successful by your participation. The editorials for the March Cook-Off 2013 have been published, this time right after the contest (we know how much eager you get to view them); you can check them all here.
Now as we write this, we move towards the April Challenge 2013. We have an incredible line up in our panel and that promises a mouthwatering contest. We are sure you wont want to miss it. So mark your calendars and join us on the first Friday of April, i.e. on 5th April, 2013 at 15:00 hours IST. Check your time zone here.
As of now, that is all from us here. And we are sorry; we could not fool you this time! But we are sure there is a little fool in all of us and let us wish each one of us a very Happy April Fools day!
See you all at the contests.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
Falling to the fallacies of laziness is a recurring occurrence in our lives. However, somehow we overcame it once again, got our act together, and wrote this blog post summarizing the two February contests. Now that you have seen the meteor shower in Russia, and gone through what is going on in Vatican City, let us take you through all that has happened in and during the two CodeChef contests!
Let us begin with the February 2013 Long Challenge. With the problem set from Khadar Basha, David Stolp, Vinayak Garg, Vitaliy Herasymiv, Roman Rubanenko, Sergey Kulik, Tasnim Imran Sunny, Shanjingbo, Bruno Oliveira, and Kaushik Iska, problem testing by Hiroto Sekido and editorials by Pradeep Mathias the February Challenge had all the ingredients of a mouthwatering contest. And the response did speak for its deliciousness.
Being the first contest to begin on “First Friday” of the month (read ‘Fab’ruary) the February Challenge offered two weekends to the participants. This included the “Valentine week.” Oh yeah, apparently it is a thing. Nevertheless, we saw submissions pouring like the cute & cuddly gifts that pour in at this time of the year. Beginning with nine problems in the offering (we did work hard and we are still trying to improve on that) the February challenge did not took too long to take off. And as the contest progressed, it just got better.
The rank tables, both Indian and global, saw some new visitors in anudeep2011, sakuag333, Alfonso2 Peterssen and Di Wang at different instances. Although, their stay at the top was not prolonged, as the almighty ACRush claimed his position in the last leg. All this was happening alongside the continually mounting submissions that continued even at the very last moment of the contest. By the time the February challenge ended, we had viewed a contest with highest participation and maximum submissions! The relentlessly changing rank-list only added to our enticing experience.
Now, to share some of that joy and excitement with you, let us take you through the rank tables of February Challenge 2013.
The top ten international winners are:
The top twenty Indian winners are:
And, as we promised, here are the 3 Indian and global participants, having the highest score for the “Challenge” problem in February Challenge 2013, who will also receive goodies.
Global:
Indian:
Kudos to them for taking on the challenge of cracking the Challenge problem!
Some other vital stats for the contest were:
Riding high on the love we received for our February 2013 Challenge, we were all geared up for the impending February Cook-Off 2013. The preparations for the contest were all in place, so we were contented with ourselves. The Cook-Off kicked off on time with problem set from Anton Lunyov. The problem testing and editorials were handled by Hiroto Sekido and Ashar Fuadi respectively.
The February Cook-Off had a lot riding on it after the huge participation in the February challenge. Hence, we were all excited from the very start of the contest. Sadly though, the excitement was short lived, as the initial load on the servers again caused connectivity issues, which many of you faced and reported. Putting all the excitement to rest, the team got working again and tried resolving the issue which took a while before things were restored to normal. By the time things calmed down, some damage was done, as many users got time penalties that they did not deserve by making repeated submissions of the same solution. After the initial bumps, the contest was back on track as the seamless submissions and participation continued.
In addition to the initial hiccups, there was an additional hurdle in the form of MINWDSUM, which no one could got over. Only this time, we were slightly less worried about the severity of problem. After all, what is a contest without any test? The MINWDSUM problem remained unsolved until the end of the contest. Even though we saw programming pros like Gennady Korotkevich paving their way into the top after being last seen in November. The sudden return of Gennady Korotkevich at the top was soon overshadowed by xcwgf666 and that pulled us all to the edge of our seats. The last leg of the competition saw a lot of toppling and tumbling at the top of the rank table, as fhlasek and uwi snatched first & second runner up spots respectively, after xcwgf666 cemented his place at the top. Despite the initial glitches and one unsolved problem in the end, the February Cook-Off 2013 was a decent contest.
The technical glitch at the beginning of the contest resulted in several unintentional submissions causing incorrect penalties. This time we have taken additional effort to invalidate all such submissions so that they do not affect the calculation of ratings. The rankings have been updated too.
So, let us have a look at the rank list of February Cook-Off.
Now, let us have a look at the stats for the February Cook-Off.
Overall, both the February contests brought to us a lot of love in the month of love. And we are thankful to each and every one of you for that. We would also like to thank our panel of problem setter, tester, and editorialist for providing us with the ingredients to cooking great contests. And a round of applause for our team of engineers who ensure smooth (Okay, almost smooth) running of the contest. Come on! Be a sport, they do deserve a small pat on back.
For all the questions, queries and quarrels you can always reach to us at feedback@codechef.com.
For now, that is all from CodeChef.
See you all at the contests!
Thanks,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
P.S.:- You all are cordially invited to CodeChef’s fourth anniversary challenge on 1st March. Do send in your wishes and presents to wish us Happy B’Day.
If only there was a time machine, we all would have wanted to go to times where we have been and where we want to be. Sadly, it is still a far cry. However, though we don’t have a time machine, yet this weekend we will take you on time travel with the reply of ACM-ICPC Amritapuri onsite regionals 2012.
We are conducting another programming contest this weekend, featuring the problem set from ACMC ICPC, Amritapuri site. This is your chance to give a shot at the problems from ACM ICPC regionals.
We are thankful to Prof. Anand Shenoy for providing us the problem set used during the onsite contest. The details for the contest are given below.
So, here’s a chance for you all to give a shot at the ACM ICPC problem set. We cordially welcome you all to be part of a blast from the past, this weekend.
In anticipation of a great weekend ahead, adios everybody.
Thanks,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
December does not seem to be a predictor-friendly month. Be it the apocalypse prediction from the Mayans or Sachin Tendulkar playing one more World Cup, nothing came true. And we are really happy about both of them, although not very sure about the latter one.
Therefore, when everyone was guessing we also had our guessing game for our December CookOff. However, just as with those foretellers, we were proved wrong by the end of the contest and this time around, we were even happier than the above two.
The delicacy of problems came from cook David Stolp, while Pradeep George Mathias, who, for the less aware is the ACM ICPC 2011-2012 world finalist and our “Go For Gold” winner, was the editorialist for this CookOff. With chills outside, the thrill for the December CookOff began right from the moment the problems were unveiled. We had our first submission on the problem MUFFINS3 inside first four minutes of the contest, which was a pleasant surprise and assured an action packed night. As the night progressed, the chill and the thrill increased, with the temperature dropping outside and the first 10 submissions getting accepted inside.
The MUFFINS3 & DIRECTI problems saw maximum submissions, while GRIDGAME proved to be the toughest problem for the contest receiving the only submission from al13n, who unfortunately ended up with only 3 problems. The beginning of contest was rather impressive with flurry of submissions pouring in and it remained that way till the end of the contest. The TREEROOT came as a surprise to many users and kept them busy for more time than expected. Overall, all the five problems were nicely set up maintaining a perfect balance & keeping the coders on their toes. By the end of the contest, we were all excited with the way the contest shaped up, which always is a nice sign.
As the contest got over, our team began the vigorous process of publishing the editorials, updating rankings, and moving the problems to the practice segment. By the time all the processes were over, we had some interesting stats at our hand. Topping the rank list, darinflar saw the biggest jump in short contest rankings with 1288 points, while ptak taking part in only his second CookOff grabbed the 3rd position bettering his previous rank of 19th in his debut at the COOK27. Also, our newly appointed problem setter, ballon_ziq, ranked 5th! .
The key stats for our December CookOff 2012 are all listed below.
The Top Ten winners for the December CookOff are as follows:
December CookOff seemed just the perfect closure to an eventful year for all of us here at CodeChef. We saw some great contests, greater participation, and most importantly some awesome contributions from you all. With all those pleasing memory we bid adieu to the year 2012 and set our sails towards the new year with the January 2013 Long Challenge.
We love to hear your suggestions and feedbacks, so keep them sending our way to feedback@codechef.com.
You can check the editorials for December CookOff here.
So, that’s all from team CodeChef as for now. We wish you all Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Have a lovely holiday season everyone.
Rudreshwar,
Team CodeChef.
EDIT: We missed out on acknowledging the efforts of the person who was instrumental behind making this such a great contest. It was none other than Anton Lunyov, a veteran and the go to man for us in any situation. He donned the tester’s hat once again and also helped David Stolp and Pradeep Mathias to improve the problem set as well as the editorials. I apologize for the goof up as I am still getting a hang of things around me. Anton, you rock!
Phew!
The past few months at CodeChef sure have been some of the more hectic ones around. The team has been running at max loads trying to keep things in check, but we have had our fair share of issues.
There have been a few things that have kept us going though; things that we refer to as strengths amongst ourselves. And YOU GUYS rank at the top of the lists. From suggestions to bug spotting, the patience and support has been exemplary. This is why; it’s a round of applause for each one of you’ll from us!
Speaking of Applause, the announcement of the winners of both our contests in September, our September CookOff and the September Challenge, have been due for some time now. But before the names are revealed, it is time for some Contest Stats. The numbers behind the CodeChef Contests have been growing at a healthy pace each month.
Contest Stats: September Long 2012
| Length of Contest | Unique Participants | Total Number of Submissions | User who have solved at least one problem |
| 10 days | 3293 | 51293 | 2706 |
| Country | Total Participants | Average Score per User |
| IN | 2649 | 1.72 |
| Rest of World | 644 | 2.97 |
Contest Stats: September Cook-Off 2012
| Length of Contest | Unique Participants | Total Number of Submissions | User who have solved at least one problem |
| 2.5 hrs | 1404 | 7510 | 1126 |
| Country | Total Participants | Average Score per User |
| IN | 1170 | 1.36 |
| Rest of World | 234 | 2.44 |
As can be seen above, September too has followed in the same vein and the numbers sure have brought out a few smiles on our faces. But we’re out here, cheering along as we present Our Stars – the CodeChef Contest Winners.
For the September CookOff, we’ve had the bright minds below taking the honours:
1. mikhailOK
2. acube
3. mmaxio
4. anton_lunyov
5. monyura
6. mugurelionut
7. EgorK
8. KADR
9. uwi
10. forifchen
Also vying for their share of the glory are the winners of the September Challenge with the spotlight on each one of those mentioned below:
Global:
1. ACRush
2. damians
3. acube
4. aurinegro
5. piob
6. Krig
7. EgorK
8. Oleg
9. emkjp
10. alexey_enkov
Indian:
1. djdolls
2. kriateive
3. arijit91
4. balakrishnan_v
5. sharatiitr
6. guru991
7. sarangbh
8. pikku
9. Paresh Verma
10. ankit_shukla
11. anudeep2011
14. dead_coder
17. dosa
18. blackBird
19. mohammadmaaz
20. sunny816.iitr
21. logic_max
22. shivamrana
23. akash4983
24. selfcompiler
Those of you’ll whose names haven’t been featured in this edition of the winners list, don’t lose hope. We’ve got many more contests and challenges lined up for you and we’re hopeful that there’ll be a new list of names in the editions to come. To help you along in your quest, the problems from this round of contests are now available in the practice section. So do have a go at them as you prepare for the one’s to come.
It’s that time of the post where we bid adieu. But before we ask you’ll for your precious feedback, here’s to our talented team of problem setters, problem testers and editorialists. These guys sure have our deepest gratitude for their efforts in keeping the CodeChef flag flying high, come rain or shine!
So, that’s it folks!
Cheers,
Tanmay
Hey guys,
Somewhere during the time when the 7th Problem, LUCKY10 made its debut, the remaining three decided to play truant on us. However, thanks to your efforts, the problem setting and testing team has been successful in tracking down the three problems.
As we speak, the team is working hard at getting them to be at their best behavior when they make their debut tomorrow night. Rest assured that there’ll be an extension in the contest deadline.
Thanks again for all the support and do keep those queries coming: feedback@codechef.com
The CodeChef team
PS: The release of the remaining problems has been extended by one more day! They should appear on or before the 8th October, midnight (IST).
They say that the problem with plenty is that one doesn’t quite know where to start from. It seems I too am faced with the same dilemma: where should I start from to write this post about our eventful Silver Jubliee August Cook-Off? For eventful, it definitely was.
The August Cook-Off can be credited for keeping all of us at CodeChef on our toes for the whole duration of the contest and more. No prizes for guessing the winner of this contest , its none other than Gennady Korotkevich. Egor Kulikov comes up second behind him just like our short contest rankings.
From the very start, the August Cook-Off was special to us. Our 25th Cook-Off is a milestone in our journey; the journey that started with the single idea of providing a competitive platform to the Indian programming community to hone their skills and fight it out with the best in the world. To have come up with 24 challenging Cook-Offs, and counting, is an achievement we are all proud of. So this Silver Jubliee Cook-Off had to be special.
We began sharp on time with a problem set of five with varying levels of difficulty. Within ten minutes, we had our first hit with yeputons opening his account with NOCODING. Others soon followed him, with NOCODING seeing a flurry of submissions. It turned out to be the most solved problem of the contest, with 835 successful submissions. YNOUTPUT was the next to be solved and it too saw a large number of solutions submitted for it. In fact, the downpour of submissions for these two actually saw the Judge at SPOJ get overloaded and slow down, but more on that in its due place.
After NOCODING and YNOUTPUT, the coders started tackling the comparatively harder problems of the set. CHEFPASS and LEBINARY were solved after some deliberation, the last of the set to see a hit was UNFRIEND. It garnered only 17 successful submissions.
With such a set, it seems the key to win the August Cook-Off was to be the first to solve all the five problems with speed and minimal penalties; none if possible. And that is precisely the strategy our hands-down winner of the contest seems to have followed. Welcome back, Gennady! He had given a miss to just the July Cook-Off, but we sure were hoping that he would turn up for our Silver Jubliee one. Gennady showed up within a few minutes of the contest and as expected of him, went on a rampage through the set. He was through with the whole set well within the first seventy five minutes of the contest! What more, he turned out to be the only one to have done so with zero penalties! It took a while for his peers to catch up with him, but EgorK soon completed the set and staked his claim at the second place. Within the first ninety minutes of the contest, we had our potential first and second rank holders and both of them stuck to their places till the end. Many congratulations to both Gennady and EgorK!
Here, have a look at our Top Ten winners for the August Cook-Off:
1. gennady.korotkevich
2. EgorK
3. mikhailOK
4. dzhulgakov
5. yeputons
6. mmaxio
7. piob
8. ilyakor
9. KADR
10. acube
We have a debutant at the ranks this time. A round of applause for piob, who has made it to the 7th position on the leader board on his very first attempt at any of our contests ever! Seems we have a new coder to watch out for. Congratulations piob! We hope to see him frequently in future contests, with similar brilliance.
Let’s come back to the problem-set itself. A special Cook-Off, like our Silver Jubliee August Cook-Off, needed a special problem-set. And that is exactly what our problem setter, Shilp Gupta, presented us with. And how can one forget the role of our veteran problem tester, Hiroto Sekido? We thank both of them to have worked as a super efficient team to come up with such a special set for our milestone Cook-Off.
Special how, you ask. Wouldn’t you call a problem-set special if it notches the highest number of total users CodeChef has ever seen for a Cook-Off? Yes people, we saw landmark participation for a landmark Cook-Off! The stats say it all.
| Length of Contest | Unique Participants | Total Number of Submissions | User who have solved at least one problem |
| 2.5 hours | 1041 | 3856 | 839 |
| Country | Total Participants | Average Score per User |
| IN | 821 | 0.92 |
| Rest of World | 220 | 1.86 |
It seems we end up breaking our own records with each successive contest. Here we were, celebrating the highest participation for a Cook-Off in July, ruing a little about the fact we fell just 7 short of achieving 1000 users. And here we are now, again celebration a record breaking participation with more than 1040 users! Ah, the bliss we feel.
Without a doubt, the August Cook-Off has given us enough reasons to celebrate, but it has also given us one to apologize to the community for. We were forty five minutes into the contest when suddenly we start registering complaints from all over. It seems that the Judge was taking forever to verify the submissions and give the results to the coders for their solutions. Some had been waiting for more than twenty minutes! Digging deeper into the matter we found out that the sudden barrage of submissions for NOCODING and YNOUTPUT had sent the Judge at SPOJ in a tizzy and it was finding it difficult to verify the large number of test cases for NOCODING AND YNOUTPUT. At one point in time there were close to 600 submissions waiting in the queue to be judged!! We decided to break for a few minutes to let the judge cool off and catch up with the speed of our coders submitting solutions. This period also allowed our problem setter and tester to retrospect and they finally came up with a plan of reducing the number of test cases for both these problems. We finally had to pause the submissions for a period of twenty minutes, from 10:30 PM to 10:50 PM. We crossed our fingers and resumed the contest hoping reducing the test cases would help and it did . Phew! We were relieved to say the least. To be fair to the community it was decided that the contest be extended for twenty minutes, till 12:20 AM. I am sure that was of great help to all. We will ensure that this situation does not come up again in future contests. Once again, we are really grateful to Shilp and Hiroto for helping us firefight the situation down. Thank you guys!
We would also like to thanks the users for bearing with us during the problem. We are also looking forward to hear your views and solutions of the same. Your feedback really means the world to us and a little help is always welcome. Also, do write back to let us know what you thought of our 25th Silver Jubliee Cook-Off and anything and everything that you think we need to hear about. And oh yes, here are the editorials for the August Cook-Off. For them, we have Shilp Gupta to thank for once again as he is also the editorialist for the August Cook-Off. Get back to us on those too and we will convey your feedback to him.
As I come to the end of this long post, it seems I have successfully managed to write about everything that I wanted to. Strange for a post that I did not know where to begin from. Just the one thing that remains is to remind you folks of the upcoming September Long Contest, though I am sure that needs no reminding of. We can assure you that we at CodeChef are every bit as excited as you to meet the September Challenge head-on. The kitchen is ablaze with related activity and aromas of the cooking problems are most appetizing. Before our chefs serve you a helping of those on 1st of September, do try your hand at the problems of the August Cook-Off which are now available in the practice section for you to attempt and improve on.
‘Tis time to say goodbye coders. This is the space you got to watch out for news from the kitchen. Till the next time, it is me saying Adios Amigos!
-Ankita
Team CodeChef
August is a very special month for Indians. It was 65 years ago, on the 15th of this month that our nation sampled its first sweet taste of freedom and we came into our own being. So, perhaps it feels just right to have an Indian at the sixth place on our global Top Ten ranks for the August Long Contest. Yes, we are talking of djdolls who fought it out hard with the best programmers in the world to make his mark on our top listings. I do hear cheers go up all around in the home crowd and that, sounds good!
Moving on, the August Long Contest is done now, but it is far from being dusted. The challenge turned out to be one of multiple claims on the first place, surprise late entries that changed things on the ranks, quite a few fresh appearances in the final top ten, Indians making their mark on the leader board and, let’s admit it, a few minor glitches from our side. Read along to find out more.
Let’s talk of the top rank holders at the outset. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for ACRush and acube, our first and second rank holders respectively for the day. Between them, they made sure that the result of the August Challenge was a guessing game to the very end. Their styles of tackling the long contest were quite different.
ACRush made his presence felt early up in the contest. He came in on the second day and soon worked his way to the top ranks. Once he got to the acme of the rankings, he decided to hold on to it and made himself comfortable at that spot. ACRush, being a master of Long Contests, looked all set to finish at the top when suddenly on the eighth day of the contest another veteran decided to rush in and shake things up a bit at the front. Acube’s blitzkrieg through the problem set was awe-inspiring to say the least. He found his way to the top soon and when he was still sitting pretty at that spot with less than seventeen hours to go for the end of the contest many hoped for, and got, a tough fight between him and ACRush for the first place. Not the one to give up, ACRush continued to try and improve his score to 10. It seems he was biding his time. Just an hour before the end of the contest, with acube still holding tight to his position at the top, ACRush came up with a solution for the challenge problem CHECKERS, that had the judge grant him the elusive perfect 10. That sealed the winner for the August Long Contest. Our congratulations to, and appreciation for, both the aces for showing everyone what it takes to be master-class!
With that, have a look at the Global Top Ten listed below. Note that we have four participants jointly holding the 10th place. Also worth mentioning is a splatter of fresh appearances on the ranks like Sumudu, djdolls, evgentu, Krig and shevchen. Sumudu was at one time leading the score board. With experience and further practice, we might soon see fresh challengers for the top places. We wish all of them luck for future contests.
Global Top Ten:
1. ACRush
2. acube
3. damians
4. Sumudu
5. tomek
6. al13n
7. thocevar
8. evgentu
9. chaemon
9. fmm
9. Krig
9. shevchen
Let’s also look at what the home crowd has been up to during the contest. Check out the Indian Top Twenty ranks. Quite a few people on the twentieth rank this time.
Indian Top Twenty:
1. djdolls
2. balajiganapath
3. balakrishnan_v
3. guptaanil2k1
3. kriateive
3. pulkit
7. n2n_
8. anudeep2011
9. rizwanhudda
10. shahbaz
11. nihalpi1
12. mukulgupta
12. niteshb
12. palatanu03
12. rab188
12. shashwat001
12. sidhantgoyal
12. thecodegame
12. uditiiita
20. abc_xy
20. abhinavabhi2
20. alphanso
20. ani_gupta
20. ankit_ism
20. bittu_it
20. clow_reed
20. experience257
20. ezio_123
20. jastiger
20. kiranjot
20. migdal
20. mohit13
20. mudda
20. nikhil19
20. ns24
20. phantom11
20. prashantcare
20. pratikmoona
20. ranjith1610
20. rishabhm
20. shashank_jain
20. shivamrana
20. theslavemaster
20. theycallhimavi
20. viv001
The special point in the August Challenge, especially for the Indians, is the mark fellow compatriot djdolls made. By securing the sixth place on the final list of the Top Ten winners, with a score of 9.273, he gave the Indians another small reason to celebrate the month of Independence. In fact, the Indians seemed to have taken this Contest pretty seriously. Their presence was constant in the global top twenty or thirty from the start. As a result, apart from djdolls, we also have balajiganapath at the 15th place on the global rankings and quite a few on the 19th rank too.
As of the problem-set itself, the feedback suggests that it was on the harder side and might have required a little extra from the coders. The contest began with eight problems as we were still putting the garnishing on MAGIC and GTHRONES to make them perfect for serving. Most of the problems saw a healthy response to them in the number of successful submissions, with LEBOMBS garnering the first and maximum followed by HOMDEL. Our winner, ACRush, wrote back to express his appreciations for the set and especially for CHECKERS, our challenge problem. Have a look at the stats below to know how the August Challenge fared in terms of numbers.
| Length of Contest | Unique Participants | Total Number of Submissions | User who have solved at least one problem |
| 10 days | 2847 | 39410 | 2217 |
| Country | Total Participants | Average Score per user |
| IN | 2206 | 1.37 |
| Rest of World | 641 | 2.52 |
The stats are indeed intriguing . We have seen the highest user participation till date on CodeChef!! Keep it coming along people.
For putting together a set that provided an interesting contest, I believe thanks are in order to our team of setters and our tester. The group that spent sleepless nights and labored days to come up with this set consists of Vitaliy Herasymiv, David Stolp, Khadar Basha, Kaushik Iska, Gennady Korotkevich, Shanjingbo, Vamsi Kavala, AnhDQ and Nikhil Garg. The person who was assigned the not-so-easy task of testing the works of all the above experts is Hiroto Sekido, an expert no less in his own right. We are really thankful to him for being such a solid rock that we depend on so often for problem setting and testing jobs. Hiroto has been taking on either of those responsibilities for the past two months and the upcoming August Cook-Off will see him wear the hat of the problem tester once again. We also extend our special thanks to Gennady for helping out Hiroto in testing process. Finally we again have Nikhil Garg doubling up as our Editorialist for the Challenge. From the words of the community it seems Nikhil’s last editorials for the July Long Contest were highly appreciated for being lucid and to the point. We are hopeful that you would find his Editorials for the August Challenge in the same league too.
So, it seems we are done with this long contest, doesn’t it? Well, not without our apologies for the minor glitches that the participants faced during this challenge. We had to update the test cases for MACGUN on the second day, followed by the updating of the statements of three of our problems for the better readability of the community. We faced further problems when coders started complaining of getting a compile time error for their solutions around 8th August. Thankfully, that was soon detected and corrected by the SPOJ team on the same day. We are sincerely regretful of the inconvenience caused to everyone. At CodeChef we always strive to provide our programmers a perfectly enjoyable and competitive experience and I hope such niggles won’t interfere with the same in the future. What would help us further in that direction is your valuable feedback. Drop in your thoughts, suggestions and complains alike. We are sincerely all ears.
I guess I have come to the end of this post on another long contest. For those who agree with me that the banner this time was perfectly befitting the occasion, lets put our hands together for Manasi. She has been coming up with brilliant and colorful themes for the banner each time.
What next, huh? As I write, there is quite a bustle in the kitchen in preparation for the August Cook-Off which is scheduled for this coming Sunday, the 19th. I can hear the pots and pans clanging! Till we present you with the recipes for the coming Cook-Off, master the ways of our August Long Contest problems in the practice section at leisure.
Signing off now with hopes of returning real soon. Bye folks!
-Ankita
Team CodeChef
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