We are amongst those few who come up with a million ideas on a single day. We do not know what causes this, but it has worked for us nicely. On an otherwise mundane day of January, we got this fabulous idea of putting ‘fab’ (as in fabulous), for February making it ‘Fab’ruary. And we were serious. However, how shall we be doing it, none of us thought! But, thanks to you guys, our ever growing and responsible community and also the ever-reliable Mr Anton, as a result of the prolonged online discussion we reached at some concord.

Taking all the points into consideration, once again we were in the conference hall hitting each other with ideas (we love to call it brainstorming), discussing ways of accomplishing it. And after a thoroughly intense session ***wink*** we came to some unanimous outcomes, that aptly fulfilled our objective of our having a ‘fab’ruary. What are those outcomes you say? Read on…

Firstly, we decided to start our long Challenges on the first Friday of every month. You will have to wait till April to notice this change. Yippy. Now, you will say “Why on first Friday?” It is because, starting the challenge on the first Friday of every month gives most contestants two weekends of participation. This, we think is fabulous for everyone and the problem setters as well as for us. Isn’t it?

Secondly, we have decided on introducing some more goodies for the participants. This must catch your attention! But wait, the kitty is not completely out of the bag yet. In order to get your hands around these goodies you will have to make yourself eligible for them. Now you must be thinking, “How do I do that?”. It is simple. It has always been simple. Starting February Long Challenge, 3 Indian and 3 non-Indian participants, having the highest score for the “Challenge” problem will be eligible to receive these additional goodies. These 6 participants will be those who are outside the top 10 non-Indian and top 20 Indian participants of the long Challenge. More reasons to give the fabulous challenge problem its due. Don’t you think so?

Now, let’s lift curtains from the final fabulous surprise. From February onwards, top 5 Indian participants in every CookOff will also receive goodies, in addition to the global top 10. This means, from now onwards, Indian masterminds will also get a prize from every CookOff, in addition to immense accolades and bragging rights. So, brush up your CookOff skills and get ready to make an impact on the smaller format of the contest as well.

Combine all the aforementioned beginnings and the month of February marks the beginning of many things fabulous. So, do not wait. There is a lot more to be won. Put on your coding hats and get ready for the imminent contests.

If, you have anything to say about our new beginnings, you can always send them our ways at feedback@codechef.com or drop us a line below

Till next time, adios everybody.

See you at the contests.

Thanks,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef

Hi Guys,

A few weeks ago, the Chef came to a realization: he needs to go on a diet.  If you’ve seen him lately, you’ll know he’s practically bursting out of his clothes.  So, in an effort to stop overloading on the code he loves to devour, he’s decided to start consuming only the highest quality code.

Only the top two finishers in India and internationally will be eligible for prizes.

We have a few reasons for making this change.  For a while, our community has been telling us that CodeChef’s prize structure could do more to encourage people to do their best.  We agree.  With this new prize structure, we think there’s more incentive for people to put forth their best effort.

*Edit* Additionally, we will be re-allocating the saved resources to other project in the pipeline in the CodeChef Community. *Edit*

Prizes on CodeChef will now be as follows:
First Place Indian: 12000 INR- Second Place Indian: 8000 INR- First Place International Contestant: $400- Second Place International Contestant: $300

As always, please let us know what you think about this new structure.  Your feedback is extremely valuable to us and helps us make CodeChef better.

Now get to cuttin the flab off your code!

Cheers,
Team CodeChef

Hi guys,

It’s been 3 months since we changed the prize structure for the Indian audience. Our intention was to encouraging more people to participate and showcase their skills in our monthly contests. With similar objectives in mind we are now opening up our  international prizes to a wider audience as well!

Starting next month we will now be rewarding the top 10 non-Indian participants. The prize structure will be as follows:

We hope that you all are as excited about the new prize structure as we are!

So make sure you comment and let us know what you think.

Cheers,
Team Codechef

Hello fellow CodeCheffers,

In an attempt to motivate and encourage more people to participate and showcase their skills in our monthly contests, based on the feedback from several CodeChef winners, we have decided to reward more number of participants starting this February. To start with, we are doing this only for Indian participants.

So, we’re glad to inform you that we will now be rewarding the top 20 participants in India! The prize structure will be as follows:

Note: All prizes above Rs.5000 will be taxed at 30%. TDS certificates will be issued at the end of the financial year.

At CodeChef we’re always looking to improve, and for this very reason we give a lot of importance to the feedback we receive. Please feel free to suggest any changes or voice any concerns that you may have.

We’re very excited about the new prize structure and hope that you all are as well.

Cheers,
Team Codechef

On January 10th 2010, we at CodeChef witnessed the most awesome teams from campuses all over India battle it out in person at the Mumbai headquarters of Directi. 639 teams of three each, had registered for the CodeChef Campus SnackDown, a two round ACM ICPC styled coding contest. The first round of the SnackDown took place on 21st November 2009. We then flew the top 7 teams from various corners of India to prove their mettle.

The 21 finalists met on 9th January for a pre-event dinner on the night before the contest finals. Here they got a chance to interact with each other, meet Bhavin (CEO of Directi) and mingle with other personnel from Directi.

Good food, interesting conversations and some fun laughs turned the dinner into a fun filled night!

The next morning at 9:30 AM teams met at the DirectiPlex with more food, some table tennis and of course, a 4 hour final on site round of the SnackDown to look forward to!

And now finally, after multiple rounds, tiresome travel and sleepless nights, we present to you the CodeChef Campus SnackDown Winners!

1st Place: Dream – IIIT Hyderabad

Bhavin and Amit with Yash Kumar (18yrs), Nadeem Moidu (20yrs), and Kunal Jain (19yrs)

Dream is an example of national integration; hailing from Rajasthan, Kerala and Chhattisgarh, these three young programmers met at IIIT Hyderabad. Inspired by their Seniors – The Kings Gambit, they formed their own team – Dream and went on to win the SnackDown!

2nd place: Phoenix – DJ Sanghvi, Mumbai

Ramki and Bhavin with Purav Shah (20yrs), Pratik Tandel (20yrs), Krunal Manik (20yrs)

This team’s friendship goes back to school days. Having started programming in the first year of engineering, they were introduced to algorithms and contests by their friend and mentor Varun Jalan (most of you know him as syco). Under Varun’s guidance team Phoenix was formed and they are soon going to represent India at the ACM ICPC world finals in China.

3rd place: CounterGambit – NIT, Trichy

Bhavin and Yazhini with Akhil Ravidas (20yrs), Abhilash R (20yrs) and Venkatesh Basker (19yrs)

Counter Gambit is formed of three hardcore Southies. Since each of them are from completely different programming backgrounds they have their our own strengths and weaknesses. However, as a team, they are really quick in solving problems which helps them  get a head start in most contests, or so they’d like to think They too are representing India at the ACM ICPC world finals this year.

The rest of our finalists are (in order of ranking):

Team: TheKingsGambit
Institution: IIIT – Hyderabad
Team Members: Anshuman Singh (21yrs), Gaurav Agarwal (22yrs) and Rajat Goel (21yrs)

Team: BruteForce
Institution: IIITM – GwaliorTeam Members: Shilp Gupta (22yrs) Manyata Goyal (21yrs) and Vineet Chaudhary(22yrs)

Team: CKrackers
Institution: Madras Institute of Technology
Team Members: Rajesh Venkatachalam (20yrs) Rajesh Rajagopalan (20yrs) Gokulakrishnan Gopalakrishnan (20yrs)

Team: DareToCode
Institution: IIIT – Allahabad
Team Members: Imran Khan (22yrs) Surendra Kumar Meena (21yrs) and Tasnim Khan (20yrs)

We had a lot of fun with the CodeChef Campus SnackDown and would love to do something like this again. We also have some fun interviews with the rest of these teams so let us know if you want more insiders information.

Cheers,
Team CodeChef

ChocoBananas,

In our previous 10 day algorithm challenges we’ve offered prizes to the top 5 participants from India and the top 5 participants from the US.  We’ve seen a lot of participation from international participants and are now deciding to expand our prizes to this set of awesome folks .  Starting in the December contest, everyone is eligible for prizes: the top 5 users in India and the top 5 users globally.

Enjoy,

Amit

Strawberry Shortcakes,
We’re pleased to announce the prize structure for the Snackdown. The online round (taking place this Saturday from 7pm-12am) will act as a qualifier for the finals, where the top five teams will battle it out in-person at the DirectiPlex in Mumbai on January 10th.

The top twenty teams will be receiving prizes according to the following schedule:

1. 82,500
2. 49,800
3. 30,450
4. 23,700
5. 20,400
6. 17,400
7. 14,100
8. 11,100
9. 7,800
10. 6,000 5,000
11-13. 4,500
14-16. 3,750
17-20. 3,000

Payouts for the top five teams will be determined by their rankings in the finals. Payments to teams 6-20 will be made after the online round.

Please note that while anyone can participate in the competition, only teams of students from the same Indian University will be eligible for the finals and prize money. Additionally, prizes above Rs. 5,000 will be taxed at 30%.

We are planning another contest with prizes available for international participants and professionals. More details on this will be coming in the next few weeks. Best of luck!

Cheers,
Amit

Update: Due to multiple requests the onsite contest is moved to January 10th, the online round will take place on November 21st at  7pm.

CodeCheffers,

We are really excited to announce two contests in November. In addition to our 10 day algorithm challenge (Nov 1st – Nov 11th) we are also hosting our first ever “CodeChef Campus SnackDown.”

What is the CodeChef Campus SnackDown?
We will be holding an ACM ICPC style team contest with two rounds and cash prizes of Rs. 3 lakhs! The first round will take place online on November 21st from 4pm-9pm 7pm-12am. The top teams from this round will be flown to Mumbai for a final in-person round on December 5th January 10th. The overall winners will receive prize money and an opportunity to dine with Bhavin (Directi’s CEO)

Who is eligible?
Anyone can participate but only students attending college within India are eligible to participate in the final round (and win prize money).

International participants, worry not, we will be holding a team based contest within the coming weeks in which everyone will be eligible for prizes.

What is the format of the contest?
Standard ACM-ICPC style rules, teams of up to 3, penalties for wrong submissions.

What are the prizes?
We will be giving out Rs. 3 lakhs in prize money, the top teams from each institute will also be recognized and rewarded.

Full details will be announced shortly, so mark the date on your calendar and stay tuned…

Cheers!

Hello everyone,

We are back with the winner-list of this month’s algorithm challenge. For the first time we have ties at 2 places in the rank-list for India

Winners :

Top 5 (India):
1st – Harpreet Singh (5.557)
2nd – Satyam Shekhar (5.116)
3rd – Gaurav Agarwal (5.000)
3th – Anshuman Singh (5.000)
5th – Anil (4.116)
5th – Pradeep B (4.116)

Top 5 (US):
1st – Wenyu Cao (6.919)
2nd – pmnox (6.902)
3rd – Josh Metzler (6.284)
4th – Balakrishnan Varadarajan (6.127)
5th – Chris Narrikkattu (5.000)

Stephen Merriman requires a special mention for having secured the first place over-all

Statistics:

All problems are now available in the practice area and the solutions are public. The test cases for the problems are now available. As the test cases for the problem Mosaic are really huge, we are uploading two sets of test cases. The test cases here are for problems other than Mosaic, while the entire set of test cases including those for the problem Mosaic are available here.
A few interesting statistics for the contest follow :

Feedback:

We removed the submission limit on the challenge problem this time as the problems were considerably tough compared to the ones in the previous contests. We agree that some of the problems had a very strict time limit and this issue will be addressed in the future contests.

Also, if you have any kind of feedback related to the contest or otherwise, feel free to comment.

Regards,
Aniruddha.