What is happening?
In light of the recent discussions in the community over plagiarism charges and how this has affected our users and their ratings, we are taking a few steps to restore order in the universe (and to maintain fairness on our platform). Below, we outline the actions we are taking and the motivations behind them.
What action is being taken?
For users whose ratings have been dropped to zero following plagiarism charges, we are increasing the rating by a maximum of 800. We have also ensured that user is penalized by at least of a rating difference of 750.
Formally, we are increasing X rating of all those users where X = minimum of 800 and (Y-750) and Y = previous rating before dropping their rating to 0. We guarantee that X is non-negative.
Why is this action being taken?
You may have been following the discussions taking place in our community over the issue.
Multiple users whose ratings had dropped to zero following plagiarism charges came to us with the concern that such a massive drop in ratings reduces their incentive to participate in contests.
The second concern was that it would take quite a long time for such users to regain their previous ratings.
Finally, some of the users with zero rating who had performed better than those with much higher ratings were getting less rating increments, which they found demotivating.
We understand that many of you felt that the decision to drop ratings was harsh and hasty. It was also pointed out to us that because the drop was not implemented after every contest, it was essentially unfair and did not give all users a fair chance to regain their ratings. After hearing from you all on the issue and brainstorming with our panel and moderators, we have come to this decision. We believe that it is the best way to address your concerns while maintaining as much fairness as possible.
How will plagiarism cases be handled in the future?
For all the future plagiarism scenarios, with each cheating attempt, we will decrease the rating of the user by 750 points flat (however ensuring that the rating doesn’t become negative). There will be no reconsideration or changes in our rating system to handle users with zero rating. No requests for leniency in this regard will be considered.
Further, we will be handling the cheating cases month by month without making any delays in the penalty.
We understand how much it affects our community when we have to take such actions. There is also a likelihood that many honest users get unnecessarily affected by the actions of a few. Do understand that plagiarism is an issue that deeply affects us all and we are trying our best to come up with new ways of combating it and making our community a better and safer place for all of you. As always, we’re there to listen to your suggestions.
Happy coding!
For Sujeet Sawala, an engineering student from Pune, tackling programming sets in front of a screen held as much interest as weaving past pawns and bishops on a chessboard. But it was the drive to learn more each day that fuelled his passion to be a better coder. Sujeet never wanted to start his job hunt but armed with his humble and dedicated approach towards programming, and learning on the whole, today he is placed in Directi through his CCDSAP certification.
But his journey started a long time back, during his college days, where he explored online contests and took to competitive programming like a fish to water. Here is an excerpt from the session we had with Sujeet about his experience with competitive programming.
Get to know me!
1. Tell us about yourself!
Hi. I’m Sujeet. I’m currently studying Computer engineering in my final year at Pune Institute Of Computer Technology, Pune. I am interested in programming and like solving complex problems. I also enjoy playing Chess. I’m an Internationally rated chess player with a FIDE rating of 1725.
2. When did you actively begin competitive programming? What did you like about it?
It was during my 3rd Semester that I explored contests with online judges and also ACM-ICPC. Since then, I gradually and actively started competitive programming. I especially liked the data structures and algorithms part of competitive programming and the challenges they throw. The logical abilities developed by attempting and overcoming those challenges are always helpful.
About CCDSAP
3. What was your motivation behind taking the CCDSAP?
I regularly participated in CodeChef Long Challenges. I was placed first on the college leaderboard. I was particularly interested in testing my skills and knowledge in a program which would also provide me a certification. That was one of the motivators for taking the CCDSAP. I was happy to learn that I scored 1000 out of 1000 in the CCDSAP in the very first attempt!
4. What specific feature did you like most about the CCDSAP? (Is there anything different that isn’t offered in other certifications?)
According to me, CCDSAP is the only program that offers certifications in Data Structures and Algorithms through programming contests. This makes it a unique certification program.
5. How did you prepare for the CCDSAP? (Any tips for beginners?)
I regularly used to practice algorithmic problems on various online judges like CodeChef, Codeforces, Hackerearth, Hackerrank, Lightoj etc. This ensured that my preparation for CCDSAP was thorough.
6. Tell us in brief about your interview process with Directi!
My interview process consisted of three interviews based on Data Structures and Algorithms. After I cleared these rounds, there was a final technical interview round. It was based on the projects done, and computer science related concepts like operating systems, databases, networking, etc.
Feedback
7. How can the overall CCDSAP exam experience be improved?
I felt the level of questions could be upgraded a notch higher so that the CCDSAP could gear up to be even more challenging.
8. Would you recommend the CCDSAP to friends/colleagues? If so, why?
Indeed. It is a good program to test one’s skills and knowledge across a wider community. The certification is a valuable one. Moreover, it helps get an interview with Directi 
tl;dr: We missed on warming our cache servers which we had added a day earlier, this allowed most of the traffic to hit the database server, thus overloading it. This then led to some users not being shown the problems, and finally, everybody’s Saturday was ruined.
Right before a contest begins, our HQ looks just like a control centre for a rocket launch. All our eyes are glued to our terminals, monitoring the vital statistics of our contests and making sure everything is functioning smoothly. And just like a rocket launch, we still have a lot to be tense about even after counting down to zero. Sometimes things go wrong even after the contest is well underway.
It’s kind of like being a football goalkeeper. Even after so many successful contests, sometimes all we can remember are the times things didn’t work out. And LTIME58 is another such memory for us and our dedicated community.
Right before the contest began, we went through all the pre-launch checks. Checkers, problems, testing, all ready to go. At about T-30 minutes, we started observing some unusual behaviours. Emails informing us about pressflow errors started dropping in from our users who were very hopeful and excited about the contest. We made the necessary fixes and by 7:30 PM, we believed we had it all under control.
Remember, it’s just like a rocket launch. Sometimes, the strangest of things go wrong at the worst of times. We watched perplexed as our DB load increased to 100%, while at the same time our inboxes started exploding with our users informing us that the problems weren’t visible. We like to pride ourselves on setting up difficult contests but one with invisible problems would be a touch too difficult, wouldn’t it?
Our initial assumption was that problems were visible to none of the users. But when we received some submissions, we realised that the problem was not affecting all users. In fact, our service that fetched contest problems had stopped. It was evident that high load had caused this, but we were still unaware of the reason for this unusual load. Going through the logs and patterns of requests, we realised it was not any kind of attack. However, by the time we closed off that possibility, it was already 8:00 PM, thirty minutes past the contest start time. When all of our efforts to reduce the DB load proved fruitless, we had to reschedule the contest for the following day. Ultimately, we could not continue when so many of our community members had faced an issue. With an extremely heavy heart, we declared the contest as unrated.
CodeChef has, quite literally, been about learning from problems. As we do with every instance of an error, we carried out a complete investigation of our application, system, and database logs and noticed that read and write operations were increasing exponentially while cache misses spiked. As it turns out, we had swapped our cache instances a day before. The new cache servers, although they had been in use along with old servers for the past couple of weeks, had not fully warmed up. This led to direct calls being made to databases due to cache misses. The issue spiralled until it ended up spoiling what would have been a perfectly fun way of spending a Saturday.
Well, the only reason we can fly around in rockets today is because for a hundred years humans have analysed every failed rocket to make a better one. That’s also what we do at the CodeChef HQ here, we learn from our mistakes (and then post about it on the Internet so that you don’t have to make mistakes to learn the same thing!). Our sincere apologies to our community that was affected by the outage. We remain committed to bringing you the best and most fun coding experience online and have taken steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. We are also thankful for the extended support of our community during such times.
We really look forward to our next contest and hope to see you all there.
Happy coding!
The Chef
Anuj Sankla, Teach for India Fellow, Cohort 2016 shares his experience of teaching the students of class 8 and 9 of a government school in Delhi. This was as a part of the summer programming workshop conducted by CodeChef. The workshop was aimed to teach these young minds programming having no prior knowledge of the same. Do read on his interesting journey.
A new school, new students and a new subject! A new environment to teachers may look just as daunting as it looks to the students. Yes, I am a teacher who was appointed to light a spark in a set of 22 students at a different school and teach a subject which I had never taught before.
I am talking about CodeChef’s initiative to inculcate logical reasoning and aspects of competitive programming in school students. The target set was huge; IOI – International Olympiad in informatics, is the most prestigious championship for student coders and CodeChef had been observing a pattern in it for quite some time. They could see India wasn’t striking gold (weren’t winning the Olympiad). Comparing Indian teams with the countries that won gold, they zeroed in and established that the secret to gold lies in an early start. Therefore, they took up the task to start nurturing young minds with the nuances of competitive programming right from school.
I was working as a Teach For India fellow when they approached me. The TFI experience had taught me to handle a class, develop a culture and to get the desired outputs from the students. I said yes to the challenge.
And here’s where we are. First day at the school, I too was nervous. I didn’t know how the kids would respond, if they would listen to me, whether they would be ready to learn? Amid all these doubts I entered the class and was greeted warmly by these 22 kids. Most of my nervousness was already gone by the welcoming nature of their greeting. I started with my plan and as decided, I planned to start with a fun energiser right after a round of quick introduction. The energiser was quite crazy and required all the kids to do weird moves. They were reluctant, they didn’t budge. “Was I being judged?” I asked myself. “This works so well in my classroom, why isn’t it working here?”. I nudged them a little, and then decided to demonstrate all the steps to the class; I was being too vulnerable. But, it worked. It worked like a charm. They opened up. They started to move. Some of them danced, some didn’t. We went for another round of energiser; most of them were enjoying it now. The class was refreshed. “Plan so far a success” I thought.
After all the dancing and shaking, I started with the class. Why coding? What is IOI? Why are we here? And after all these questions we moved into something which was new for the kids as well as for me. For kids, as they had never studied it. For me, because I had never taught it to anyone.
Number system, binary, decimal, conversions were all being discussed in the class. Some understood, some were confused and some were probably questioning their decision of attending these classes during their summer break. But soon, the classroom turned into a pool of enthusiastic innovators who were trying to figure out different patterns in binary numbers. They wanted to break it down. I was glad as I wanted them to do the same. Soon, they became comfortable with number systems and we ended the class with a mind boggling puzzle. The day went well . I was glad the plan worked as I wanted it to.
Next day, another warm greeting; this time I could feel even more warmth. The kids had accepted me and so had I. We started the class with another energiser. This time almost everyone was engaged. They had started enjoying these sessions. Soon, energisers were part of my daily lessons.
And when missed, the kids themselves reminded me that we should have energisers now. They had opened up, they had started showing curiosity, and began working in groups. Almost all of them had started to question and most importantly they had started to struggle; struggle without giving up. I think that was what I really wanted them to achieve.
We dived deep into the content, and began tackling operations, flowcharts, loops, lists, more flowcharts, more dry runs . And during the process both (kids and I) of us learnt. We learnt amazing concepts, we solved problems, and figured out how a problem can have multiple solutions. We saw how to find out an error in your solutions and even solved puzzles . And once they were well-versed with the content, it was time for a test. The kids made their way to the computer lab. They had to start coding in Python. Python, which was just a reptile to them till then, had suddenly turned into something with which they could build with the computers.
Our Python classes started with the basic commands of input and print. And much to their joy, the kids were already celebrating seeing that their code could print their name on the screen. Little did they know that they had a lot more to explore. We soon started getting into the concepts of operations, loops, lists and what not. Sometimes, the kids would figure out some untold concepts and commands on their own. It felt like we had achieved what we aimed for. They were now ready to learn on their own. We had developed in them a desire to learn, and now they would go on to explore and satiate their hunger for more knowledge.
Soon after they had started to code, we introduced them to the CodeChef online judge and held an online contest, with their rank lists being projected on the wall. They’d quickly have a look at the ranks and then get onto their computers and start solving the problems. You could see the joy in their eyes as they saw their ranks going up with every correct attempt . And disappointment on their face could easily be spotted when their friends solved the questions and moved above the rank list, leaving them below. Soon, contests too were as much a part of our daily classes as energisers and puzzles.
And before I could sense, the 15 day workshop came to an end. There was a final contest, and certificates were distributed to the young geniuses. I also gave them a handwritten “words to inspire” message. As we declared the end of the workshop, I could hear “We’ll miss you”, “You have been a great teacher “ , “When will you come to meet us again?” , “I’ll connect with you on Facebook” and much more. I waved goodbye to the kids, feeling a true sense of joy and accomplishment being able to affect their lives for the better, even if for only a fortnight.
On my way back, as I am writing this, I wonder how easy it is for people to connect with someone. At one point, we don’t know each other and then the next moment, we trust each other and feel comfortable around them. I will really miss these kids and the workshop. I would love to relive this experience again.
~Tschüss
Anuj Sankla
Fellow , Cohort 2016
Teach For India
+91 8130811961
On the eve of Women’s Day, we had the opportunity to interact with a talented female coder from India, Anushi Maheshwari (anushi), whose coding prowess and unflinching focus is breaking gender boundaries. We all have a different story about how each of us started to code, and this time we bring to you Anushi’s coding journey. As a girl who learned programming skills in school, Anushi tells us of the sheer determination and hardwork that has made her achieve success in this field dominated by ‘hims’.
Tell us something about yourself!
I am a final year student pursuing Electronics Engineering at Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur.
When and how did you develop an interest in coding?
I knew JAVA since 10th grade but because of lack of a personal laptop and an internet connection, it was very late before I started competitive coding.The first challenge I participated seriously was the October Long Challenge 2016 when I was 18 but it was during the previous year’s summer vacation when I had better internet at my disposal that I spent improving myself, actively participating in May and June Long Challenges.
What sparked your interest in the field of competitive programming?
I always had a liking for it. When I first learned programming, I used to think of the best way of doing that and that’s how I went forward. Later I was fascinated with the amazing CodeChef Platform. For me, the best thing about CodeChef is their long challenge and goodies I also like the concept of hacks on Codeforces.
Any obstacles that you faced?
The coding environment is something that hindered my growth because I couldn’t find anyone to help me with the problems I faced initially and the major reason behind this was that there were not many girl coders (and only a few boys were good in CP) in HBTI. Another roadblock was my branch (Electronics Engineering). Till today, I have a tough time juggling between the 75% attendance required in Electronics classes and my self-taught Computer Science subjects. But when so many people tackle such issues, why can’t I? 
How did you overcome these obstacles?
It took me a while to realize that no magic is going to happen to help me understand algorithms. I had only me. I made a habit of not giving up on any topic until I understood it. I repeated read about the topic from different sources, ran that code in debug mode and saw if I made any progress. If not, I turned to messaging some great coders on Codeforces and I can bet you that 2 out of 5 are always there to help you if you ask a genuine doubt (not a problem of running contest).
Your views on the gender imbalance in competitive programming?
There is no doubt in the fact that there are very few women coders (only 3-4) in top 100 but I think CodeChef is doing it’s best in reducing the gender diversity by giving some extra opportunities to women
Your message to other women in the field?
The best way to learn to code is solving problems. But don’t always solve easier ones, try to grasp something new with every problem you practice. For this, I think it’s better to practice those next level problems which you were unable to do in the contest other than randomly selecting by yourself. Also, you can connect to me anytime for problems you face and I assure you of my reply (It could take a day or two if I am busy with other stuff but not more than that).
—
Her story is a simple reflection of the complexities associated with all females trying to come up in the competitive programming world and is truly an example for us all. Team CodeChef appreciates her dedication and perseverance to keep her competitive programming flag flying high amidst all the difficulties she faced and wishes her good luck in all her future endeavours.
Ruchika
Team CodeChef
She wasn’t like the others. In programming, she found her true friend. There was no ambiguity. No sad moments. She asked questions through lines of code, and it would answer promptly, every single time. There was so much to know about it too. Every day, she learnt more about its functions, the libraries it read from, the indentation that looked best on it, and the objects without which it wouldn’t run. Literally. And the best part? It knew an astonishing number of languages! Just as she googled about the languages and who created them, she was surprised to find out that nearly all of them were written by boys. Her heart sank a little. That night, as she slid into bed, one question kept her awake –
Can’t I go on to teach it a language of my own?
Coding is for the intelligent, creative, hard working individuals — male or female, yet it is an established fact that there are very less women who take it up professionally or who are interested in competitive programming. Young women across the globe are still facing a tough, rough road in the tech industry.
Women have faced difficulty in fitting in the ‘brogramming’ culture, as it is popularly called. There are multiple instances wherein women feel the lack of role models/mentors and peer to peer engagement in this field. They are attributed as major reasons for the lack of women in programming. Yet, in spite of roadblocks, the programming community is witness to many diligent girls who, with sheer determination, independently give life to their successful coding journey. Team CodeChef has immense respect for such talent and appreciate their zeal and enthusiasm. Here is a list of few top female programmers on our platform who have it in them to become role models as a source of inspiration to other female aspirants:
| CodeChef User | Country | Global Rank | Country Rank |
| Kirika Yuumura (kirika_comp) | Japan | 187 | 17 |
| Alexandra (demon1999) | Russia | 207 | 19 |
| Ania Piekarska (ania7) | Poland | 207 | 4 |
| Andrey Nekrashevich (xolm) | Belarus | 254 | 11 |
| Z. Shi (shizhouxing) | China | 309 | 48 |
| Olesya Golub (taube) | Russia | 309 | 28 |
| Aidyn Aluadin (aidyn12) | Kazakhstan | 316 | 5 |
| Vladimir Chalyshev (cmd) | Russia | 352 | 32 |
| Malvika Raj Joshi (meteora) | India | 359 | 86 |
The programming world has, hidden beneath its fabric, several gender disparities at play. It’s unrealistic to think these perceptions will change over night but I think we ought to embrace the reality and use it to our own advantage. Here are some statistics that highlight this issue quite transparently:
Although these numbers are registering an improving trend worldwide, there is a lot that needs to be done by the community to push it further.
‘In college, when I was considering being a CS major, the male programming students I talked to shook their heads and said “Don’t do it. You’ll be the only girl there.‘
- Grace Ng, Co-Founder, Javelin.com (Source: Quora)
Unfortunately, Grace is not the only one who is facing this issue. Thousands of girls worldwide have taken to the internet as a platform to share their similar experiences. Imposter syndrome is a common psychological effect that affects the top coders too. It is the feeling of not being good enough which is stereotypically imbibed in a person belonging to a group. Girls surrounded by males in a professional environment or in any competing environment crumble due to lack of confidence owing to a culture bias plastered deep in their minds.
Many organizations are sprouting all over the world to find solutions and plans for engaging more females in the field of Computer Science. This Women’s Day, CodeChef would also like to celebrate the coding achievements of women on our platform and encourage more women to come and try their hands on competitive programming. We have special prizes for women participants in the ongoing March long challenge.
Also, on this day of woman, we urge you to take a responsible step in empowering your fellow female coders and the entire community at large, to promise an open, inviting approach to all who would love to code. Every single one of us is part of this beautiful community, including you. Thus, we’d be delighted if you could spare a few minutes and fill out this survey about your views: goo.gl/forms/KkCTa2IjXf1YCx6B2.
Happy Coding!
Ruchika,
Team CodeChef
As you all know, Chef loves to dish out new enhancements during his birthday month, and this time, he’s cooked up something special which many of you have been asking for – a Rating Divisions system!
Users are now divided into two Divisions based on their overall CodeChef rating.
All CodeChef contests (Long Challenges, Cook-Offs and LunchTimes) will now have two parallel contests, one for Division 1 and another for Division 2. A user can participate in only the Division that she belongs to.
The Division 2 contest will have some more easier problems, whereas the Division 1 contest will have a few more harder ones. This means that beginners get to practice on more easier problems, whereas the higher rated users will skip some of the easy problems and focus on solving the harder ones. A Win-Win situation, if ever there was one!
The ratings will be calculated only within your own Division, and hence will be a better reflection of your true skill level.
Also, we can now have more External Rated Contests, which will be rated only for Division 2 users. The Chef has also introduced Unofficial Participation, through which Division 1 users can also submit in such contests, but it will not affect their rating.
And last, but not the least, we hope that it will be further motivation for users to improve their performance and get to compete with the elite!
Head over here to know more about this system.
Cheers,
The Chef
For Istasis Mishra (Codechef profile, Codeforces profile), a class 12 student from Kolkata, India, competitive programming opened the doors to a world of exciting and unending potential. Istasis first discovered Chef and his contests when he participated in the May Cook-Off 2016. And just yesterday, Istasis propelled himself into the league of coders after a commendable performance in the February Lunchtime 2018, achieving his best ever CodeChef rating in the process!
Here’s what the young boy, who aspires of representing India at the ACM-ICPC World Finals one day, has to share:
It has been a wonderful journey for me; one full of ups and downs ( you can see that in my rating graph) and also very humbling. I have met a lot of new talented people, made numerous new friends, learnt a bunch of new things, paved the way for new opportunities, experienced competition and collaboration and so much more. The list is endless!
It all began when I scored poorly in Computer Science in my half yearly school exams. I didn’t like Computer Science at all. I had no interest in it. I was more into sports. The principal used to teach our class and I had fallen down a lot in her eyes by scoring a mere 52%.
I knew I could not study unless I like it and I started googling stuff to get myself interested. And obviously I googled the most cliched “How to make money by programming?”. I landed on TopCoder where they hold competitions based on design and development and give out cash prizes to the winners. I went to the Algorithms track and saw that the problems were very interesting. I always had a knack for solving problems but there, it was truly enlightening. Yes, I obviously made very trivial mistakes back then. For example, my first submission had prompts like “Please, enter the integer: “, etc. Also, it took me about a month to understand what “test cases” mean and that is why I stuck to TopCoder for a long time even after knowing about CodeChef. Yes, the beginning was rough and intimidating as it is for everyone, but thank god, I didn’t give up.
Now looking back after one and half years of experience, I think it seemed elegant back then and I wanted to explore more. What started out as a search for marks (and money maybe) ended up in me finding my true passion.
The funny part is, I did not even know that I was doing competitive programming and that there are competitions like ICPC or IOI. I just did it as a hobby. I used to solve TopCoder problems all the time. But the great mistake I had done was that I was afraid of taking part in the competitions.
I started participating in competitions only one year after solving the easy problems. On looking back, it was my acquaintance Vatsal Sharma who told me that I am actually doing CP and that there is more to it than I think. I learnt that through Olympiads I could get admission in colleges and enjoy many other perks, and the best thing is that I was already a bit experienced when I got to know about it. At that point in time, I used to do it very casually and that led to me getting a very low rating on Codeforces and CodeChef.
In August 2016, I had my first onsite competition, Procon Junior in IIIT Delhi. It was a great experience, and I was motivated by meeting so many like minded people. I participated in ZCO too and started doing CP seriously from thereon.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it past INOI that year but I took that as a challenge and practiced even more to guarantee myself a place in IOITC in 2018. I am really happy that I could make that happen. I can proudly say that this was the biggest breakthrough for me: cracking INOI 2018. I wouldn’t say I am a very good competitive programmer; in fact I have a long way to go to be “good” and I will still strive to be better.
(P.S Obviously, that 52% increased to 100% in my final exams 
)
Overall, there were always ups (making it to IOITC ’18, getting selected for IPC Camp, high ratings, good ranks, winning Lord of Code, etc.) and downs (low rating, missing out on IOITC ’17, etc.) along the way but what matters is I do not let them affect me and still love solving problems. I do not care if I make it to IOI or not, I am happy to be doing what I am and will always strive to improve myself.
My only tip would be to just practice and enjoy problem solving.
I have explained it elaborately here: https://discuss.codechef.com/questions/104710/an-advice-for-competitive-programming
CP has made me a better problem solver and that is definitely a plus point. I would get good marks without studying much because I was able to solve problems fast. Problem solving also helps solve real life problems. Doing CP and getting good ratings and ranks also earns you recognition.
Above all, it has helped me make my dream come true, to pursue a career in research in Computer Science and that too in one of the best institutes there possibly is in India, Chennai Mathematical Institute.
CodeChef has gone a long way in helping me practice and keeping my morale boosted. It has also provided us with Discuss where we can come together, collaborate and help each other. I have learnt a lot from the problems on the platform as well as the Discuss posts. Initiatives like IPC Camp and ICPC for Schools have also helped me stay motivated to a great extent.
CodeChef has also given my school the opportunity to be a part of the Campus Chapter initiative. This led to the formation of a Tech Club from which I am sure more talented competitive programmers will emerge. I hope I can give back to the community as much I have gained from it.
- – - – -
We wish Istasis all the very best in his endeavours and hope he keeps the competitive programming fire in him burning for a long long time. Are you intrigued by his story? Did you find your calling in CP too?
You too can have your story read by programming enthusiasts across the globe. All you need to do is write to us about your competitive programming journey here: goo.gl/BDNBsT
Rishik Sood is studying in Class 12, Amity International School, Mayur Vihar, New Delhi. When asked, he readily shared his preparation experience for INOI and highlighted some vital tips for those who are starting to prepare for the same.
I started CP very late, around 6 months before INOI. The initial months were of course very scary. I struggled really hard (around a month) to get past the easiest questions . But then I met Udit, and he introduced me to an extremely talented group of programmers and mathematicians.
After joining this group, my journey initially became even hard because these guys were just too good. But soon there came Aulene senpai with his amazing guide to INOI preparation. This small guide introduced me to really good questions and that’s where I started to pick up CP concepts. Initially, to do CP, I would really recommend joining a close group of people who do CP. I was helped a lot by guys like Istasis Mishra, Aulene De, Udit Sanghi, Vatsal Sharma, Rajarshi Basu and others in the “Coders’ Den”.
Anyway, some 1-2 months later came ZCO judgement day. ZCO wasn’t really hard. I’m pretty pretty sure I messed up but getting 100+ was not at all a tough job. Cleared ZCO and nearly ZIO. After this, I realised how the level rises from ZCO to INOI. I had to work harder than before if I had to make it to IOITC. So slowly but surely I started preparing for INOI. My key resources were Codeforces, CodeChef and USACO along with some others like SPOJ. I did these pretty well, and became much better than before in a short span of time. For people reading this, keep doing USACO religiously. I cannot stress enough that they have problems that are gold for learning interesting concepts. I did USACO till the day before INOI.
Soon came INOI judgement day. I was not the most confident person but I was pretty sure I’d make it. So I sat to give INOI. I did the graph question pretty quickly without any issue and then faced a somehow intermediate level DP question. Well, I panicked and wasn’t able to do it even though I pretty much knew the solution 10 minute into the question.
I’d like to finish by giving some final pointers specific to ICO as far as I’ve learnt about it:
Learn Python + CPP/Java. People can argue that CPP is a much more used language but in my opinion when it comes to ZCO, no language is better than Python. Easiest codes can be written quite quickly.
Know your language well and be completely comfortable in it before ZCO.
If you’re learning CPP have the STL at your tips.
If there is any onsite workshop or competition like Procon Jr. do attend it. That greatly reduces the onsite stress.
Don’t panic when giving on-site contests. I suffered quite a lot during INOI.
Read the questions well and solve them on paper first. You needn’t be the first person to do these questions so just take your time and ensure you know what you’re going to code. Include all edge cases on the paper.
Implementing questions in practice is a debatable topic, but I’d say if you are solving 10 questions, you should implement at least 4-5.
Thank you!
Rishik Sood
rishik123
The final regional of the ACM ICPC season of 2017 is here!
9:00am IST: The contest has begun.
9:05am IST: Team Instincts from Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering, Chennai get the first AC of the contest!
First 10 submissions of the contest have all got AC. 6 of them are in C++, 3 in Python, 1 in Java.
9:18am IST: ScopeHotaHai from IIT Bombay lead the ranklist with 2 problems solved.
Plenty of teams are trying the 2nd easiest problem of the contest at the moment. 60+ teams have correctly solved it so far.
9:45am IST: Bristomaticians are now at Rank 1 with 3 problems solved. They have 1 time penalty at the moment.
9:47am IST: aglet (IIT Bombay) get AC on the 3rd problem. They are at Rank 1 with 0 penalties. This team is to watch out for in this contest. They were among the top 5 in the Kolkata regionals and were the only team to solve one of the hard problems.
9:51am IST: TooWeakTooSlow (IIIT Hyderabad) solve their 3rd problem which is the 4th distinct problem solved in this contest.
9:52am IST: Geany (LNM Institute of Information Technology) are at rank 1 with 3 problems solved. Just 1 minute time penalty difference between Geany and aglet.
9:55am IST: TooWeakTooSlow solve 4 problems! They are now at first place.
10:15am IST: TooLazy (IIT Madras) solve 4 problems! They are ahead of TooWeakTooSlow by one 29 seconds!
10:20am IST: FutureGlory (IIT Bombay) solve 4 problems with 0 penalties and are now at Rank 1.
Their team name seems to be inspired by tourist’s team – PastGlory 
10:23am IST: The Vindicators (IIT Kharagpur) solve a graph problem which their 4th AC and this contest’s 5th distinct solved problem. Also, they are rank 1 now! 3 minutes ahead of FutureGlory.
They haven’t solved a problem that the other top teams have solved yet, but maybe one member of the team would have figured out the logic for it by now. Let’s see if they get an AC on that problem in the next 10-15 minutes!
We also have 4 school teams participating today!
- int elligence = 0; (DPS Ruby Park)
- syntaxscrubs (DPS International School)
- int_elligence (Professor K K Anand’s Smart Minds Academy)
- Bashers (Professor K K Anand’s Smart Minds Academy)
10:57am IST: No team has solved 5 problems yet.
11:03am IST: Mochizuki (IIIT Bangalore) are the first team to solve 5 problems! They are now at Rank 1 with 0 penalties.
11:14am IST: Unity (IIT Delhi) solve 5 problems and move up to rank 2! They have 2 penalties. They have also solved the 6th distinct problem of the contest.
11:25am IST: BhayankMaut (IIIT Delhi) are now at Rank 2. with 5 problems solved.
TooWeakTooSlow (IIIT Hyderabad) solve their 5th problem as well and move up to Rank 3.
11:31am IST: NotExperts (BITS Hyderabad) solve their 5th problem and the 7th distinct problem of the contest.
11:51am IST: TooWeakTooSlow solve 6 problems and lead the ranklist now.
12:05pm IST: Tesla (IIITH) solve their 6th problem. They are at Rank 2 now!
12:10pm IST: Unity (IIT Delhi) solve their 6th problem and they are at Rank 2 now. Tesla moves to rank 3.
12:31pm IST: TheVindicators (IIT Kharagpur) move up to 2nd place. They are ~15mins behind TooWeakTooSlow on time penalty.
12:55pm IST: LastBreath (NSIT) solve the 8th distinct problem of the contest.
3 minutes left before the ranklist freezes.
1:00pm IST: Ranklist is now frozen.
Top 10 teams have all solved 6 problems.
Whom do you think will win at the ACM ICPC Amritapuri Regionals?
Vote now and cheer for your favorite team here: https://twitter.com/codechef/status/945928634279247872
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