Inappropriate Activities in the June Contest

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Hi guys,

As you all must already be aware, solutions to some of the contest problems have become publicly available. This is quite unfortunate as we have worked really hard at trying to provide you with a good contest.

While we have already banned the user from the contest and have blocked him from our FaceBook page, he has still managed to release the solutions to a large audience.

There is nothing that we can really do about this except for hope that the community takes an honest approach towards the competition and does not use the publicly available solutions. This would defeat the purpose of a fair competition and our ultimate goal, which is to increase education and the quality of programming.

Please note that since solutions to contest problems become public after the competition, users who have used the same code will not be eligible for prizes and may also be banned from future contests.


Regards,
Team CodeChef

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67 Replies to “Inappropriate Activities in the June Contest”

  1. This can repeat in future too. The 'loser' can do it with ease every time, creating new accounts. so whatz the solution for it ? ( apart from making all problems as challenge problems :p )

  2. This can repeat in future too. The 'loser' can do it with ease every time, creating new accounts. so whatz the solution for it ? ( apart from making all problems as challenge problems :p )

  3. and its sooo bad to see that some of the past months contest winners, and top20 performers and even some of your company employees adding that 'cheater' as a friend in FB, without even checking who he is. great !

  4. and its sooo bad to see that some of the past months contest winners, and top20 performers and even some of your company employees adding that 'cheater' as a friend in FB, without even checking who he is. great !

  5. I believe there will always be some such distractions. We need to continue doing our best and not be bothered by them. The whole idea behind Codechef is to provide the community a place to learn by giving in their best. And then we believe that the community will take some responsibility and each individual will take an honest approach in going about this objective. We are not looking for a “solution” and doing something like only providing challenge problems will defeat the whole purpose. Connecting to the person should not be taken with so much scrutiny! Not doing so will also not help anyone. It is a small thing and all I want to say is that let us focus on the what we and do best and not be deterred by such distractions.

  6. I believe there will always be some such distractions. We need to continue doing our best and not be bothered by them. The whole idea behind Codechef is to provide the community a place to learn by giving in their best. And then we believe that the community will take some responsibility and each individual will take an honest approach in going about this objective. We are not looking for a “solution” and doing something like only providing challenge problems will defeat the whole purpose.

    Connecting to the person should not be taken with so much scrutiny! Not doing so will also not help anyone. It is a small thing and all I want to say is that let us focus on the what we and do best and not be deterred by such distractions.

  7. Codechef is so meaningless. I'm quite certain people used to cheat here before too. Before I go ahead I want to sat that I have respect for most of the programmers, like TripleM, Mark Greve ( almost all international people perform fairly ) and the problem setters too. You do a great job. However it's the Indians which bother me. I dont see the greats like humblefool, konqueror, Ajay Somani, Anshuman Singh and Varun Jalan giving a shit about this. For example, the people who have been winning at Codechef recently totally suck. They are greys or greens on Topcoder and the Coder of the Month for last month didnt even advance to the Round 2 of Google Code Jam. So stupid. Basically Codechef seems ideal for those who cannot perform anywhere else, and as for the Indians that seems entirely true. I think it is the contest format to blame. LOL do you expect Indians to not cheat in programming contests? The conditions are very conducive for them to cheat. Keep it over 10 days so that people can have enough time to share code and modify it so it's not even traceable. What do you do about that Codechef? I guess nothing, you just hire them into Directi it seems.It's even more funny that if Codechef hires such cheats then I wonder what will prevent them from running scams inside Directi. If they can cheat for 3000 Rubles or less, they dont have any honesty do they?I think there are only few solutions to this1. Shutdown Codechef 2. Run Codechef with current format and let the people cheat ( irrespective of whether solutions are made public, people find ways to get the code anyway ). Possibly rename it to Cheatchef or something3. Run Codechef with a shorter format.P.S. I've seen some Codechef contestants discuss strategy over the TC Arena (like an idiot asked, how did u get rid of the TLE for Prime Patterns )Great going Cheatchef… err CodechefIt seems shorter formats are successful everywhere – IOI, ACM, ICPC, Topcoder, Codeforces etc.And they have way more participation than Codechef ever will…Well Codechef, you plain suck. Thats' all. Great going efforts “increase education and the quality of programming.” I think it's all bullshit. Codechef is a site that encourages cheating more than any other site.I believe there was a similar issue brought up regarding two cheats – Robert Gerbcisz and Yash Kumar. In fact I heard that post was deleted from the forum. Why would you do such a thing? You should've publicly stated the names of the cheats they dont deserve anything else.Anyway Codechef, you be happy with your cheats i'll go elsewhere. You can delete my post if you want, it is hard to take constructive criticism. Only those who can take it can improve.

  8. Codechef is so meaningless. I'm quite certain people used to cheat here before too. Before I go ahead I want to sat that I have respect for most of the programmers, like TripleM, Mark Greve ( almost all international people perform fairly ) and the problem setters too. You do a great job. However it's the Indians which bother me. I dont see the greats like humblefool, konqueror, Ajay Somani, Anshuman Singh and Varun Jalan giving a shit about this. For example, the people who have been winning at Codechef recently totally suck. They are greys or greens on Topcoder and the Coder of the Month for last month didnt even advance to the Round 2 of Google Code Jam. So stupid. Basically Codechef seems ideal for those who cannot perform anywhere else, and as for the Indians that seems entirely true. I think it is the contest format to blame. LOL do you expect Indians to not cheat in programming contests? The conditions are very conducive for them to cheat. Keep it over 10 days so that people can have enough time to share code and modify it so it's not even traceable. What do you do about that Codechef? I guess nothing, you just hire them into Directi it seems.
    It's even more funny that if Codechef hires such cheats then I wonder what will prevent them from running scams inside Directi. If they can cheat for 3000 Rubles or less, they dont have any honesty do they?
    I think there are only few solutions to this
    1. Shutdown Codechef
    2. Run Codechef with current format and let the people cheat ( irrespective of whether solutions are made public, people find ways to get the code anyway ). Possibly rename it to Cheatchef or something
    3. Run Codechef with a shorter format.

    P.S. I've seen some Codechef contestants discuss strategy over the TC Arena (like an idiot asked, how did u get rid of the TLE for Prime Patterns )

    Great going Cheatchef… err Codechef
    It seems shorter formats are successful everywhere – IOI, ACM, ICPC, Topcoder, Codeforces etc.
    And they have way more participation than Codechef ever will…

    Well Codechef, you plain suck. Thats' all. Great going efforts “increase education and the quality of programming.” I think it's all bullshit. Codechef is a site that encourages cheating more than any other site.

    I believe there was a similar issue brought up regarding two cheats – Robert Gerbcisz and Yash Kumar. In fact I heard that post was deleted from the forum. Why would you do such a thing? You should've publicly stated the names of the cheats they dont deserve anything else.

    Anyway Codechef, you be happy with your cheats i'll go elsewhere. You can delete my post if you want, it is hard to take constructive criticism. Only those who can take it can improve.

  9. Do you tend to imply, that Codechef will ignore all such “distractions”? Besides when does “giving out lot of prize money” become a part of the efforts to “increase education and the quality of programming.”Did you get money in school for solving math exercises?

  10. Do you tend to imply, that Codechef will ignore all such “distractions”? Besides when does “giving out lot of prize money” become a part of the efforts to “increase education and the quality of programming.”

    Did you get money in school for solving math exercises?

  11. I won't respond to the majority of your post(which already comes across as a rant). Calling Indians as cheaters, using profanities like f**k, s**t, and what not. What I do find worthwhile is the idea of a shortened contest. I think I have put across this suggestion sometime in the past. Having a shorter contest(of say 3-4 hours) with a little easier problems is going to be very conducive. Having problems with deterministic solutions in a contest that runs over 10 days is however not going to be very fruitful. A lot of people can easily collaborate and submit solutions easily.I guess there are 2 equally interesting solutions to the problem at hand :1) Run a couple of short contests (over weekends?) every month. The time that would go into preparing for such contests and the resources they will take are going to be considerably lesser than now. 2) Run a contest which has only tiebreaking problems, i.e., problem with no deterministic best solution where you can tweak your algorithm as much as you like and want to.I would prefer both. Have a contest of type 2 but with only 1 problem and running for 4-5 days. And 2 contests of type 1) twice a month. That way the programmers can get contests more evenly spread out over the course of the month and with less headache of cheaters.

  12. I won't respond to the majority of your post(which already comes across as a rant). Calling Indians as cheaters, using profanities like f**k, s**t, and what not.
    What I do find worthwhile is the idea of a shortened contest. I think I have put across this suggestion sometime in the past. Having a shorter contest(of say 3-4 hours) with a little easier problems is going to be very conducive. Having problems with deterministic solutions in a contest that runs over 10 days is however not going to be very fruitful. A lot of people can easily collaborate and submit solutions easily.
    I guess there are 2 equally interesting solutions to the problem at hand :
    1) Run a couple of short contests (over weekends?) every month. The time that would go into preparing for such contests and the resources they will take are going to be considerably lesser than now.
    2) Run a contest which has only tiebreaking problems, i.e., problem with no deterministic best solution where you can tweak your algorithm as much as you like and want to.
    I would prefer both. Have a contest of type 2 but with only 1 problem and running for 4-5 days. And 2 contests of type 1) twice a month. That way the programmers can get contests more evenly spread out over the course of the month and with less headache of cheaters.

  13. I dont think I used any profanities. I'm sorry if I have, I will avoid it. Btw i realised your name is incredibly offensive to me. It is K-shit-ij, please consider writing your name as Ksh**ij, so that I am not offended by the profanity.Thanks

  14. I dont think I used any profanities. I'm sorry if I have, I will avoid it. Btw i realised your name is incredibly offensive to me. It is K-shit-ij, please consider writing your name as Ksh**ij, so that I am not offended by the profanity.
    Thanks

  15. If that was intended to be funny, it wasn't. If it was intended as a way to insult me, congratulations, you managed to achieve what you intended. On a more serious note, on a social forum and in a professional environment, there are ways to communicate with people. Just because I am invisible and sitting behind my PC doesn't mean I can say whatever I want to whoever, however uncivil it is. Since you were citing TC as an example, I suggest you try to use the same tone in any post on TC forums. I guess the moderators there are not going to take lightly to it. I am strongly anti-censorship and anti-moderation but I can understand why it becomes necessary on online forums. Anyways, this is my last response to anything you said. You can continue with distorting my name and/or whatever you feel like.

  16. If that was intended to be funny, it wasn't. If it was intended as a way to insult me, congratulations, you managed to achieve what you intended.
    On a more serious note, on a social forum and in a professional environment, there are ways to communicate with people. Just because I am invisible and sitting behind my PC doesn't mean I can say whatever I want to whoever, however uncivil it is.
    Since you were citing TC as an example, I suggest you try to use the same tone in any post on TC forums. I guess the moderators there are not going to take lightly to it. I am strongly anti-censorship and anti-moderation but I can understand why it becomes necessary on online forums.
    Anyways, this is my last response to anything you said. You can continue with distorting my name and/or whatever you feel like.

  17. Hi Vijay,We are sorry and surprised you feel so strongly that CodeChef is meaningless and promotes cheating. We think we've done a lot to help people improve their programming skills, and reward great programmers. We are trying to create a culture of learning and competitive programming in India, where it is currently limited to a very small niche.There is not much we can really do about cheating, other then trust the community to report instances of it. If people want to cheat, they will always find ways too. We'd like to ask them again to stop posting your solutions everywhere, it really ruins the spirit of the competition.We'd like to experiment with shorter contests (and are planning one for the next month or two), but we still would like to offer the longer duration contests. A lot of people who are new to competitive programming have told us they struggle in a short duration contest, while long ones really give them a chance to think and figure stuff out. If you are not happy with CodeChef, you are free to voice your concerns, but please don't ruin the atmosphere for other people.

  18. Hi Vijay,

    We are sorry and surprised you feel so strongly that CodeChef is meaningless and promotes cheating. We think we've done a lot to help people improve their programming skills, and reward great programmers. We are trying to create a culture of learning and competitive programming in India, where it is currently limited to a very small niche.

    There is not much we can really do about cheating, other then trust the community to report instances of it. If people want to cheat, they will always find ways too. We'd like to ask them again to stop posting your solutions everywhere, it really ruins the spirit of the competition.

    We'd like to experiment with shorter contests (and are planning one for the next month or two), but we still would like to offer the longer duration contests. A lot of people who are new to competitive programming have told us they struggle in a short duration contest, while long ones really give them a chance to think and figure stuff out.

    If you are not happy with CodeChef, you are free to voice your concerns, but please don't ruin the atmosphere for other people.

  19. Oh sure,The “thinking and figuring out part” is a good metaphor for “Ctrl-C Ctrl-V and modify”.How many agree that it is impossible for an absolute new-comer to figure out something like binary search or dynamic programming in a real contest. That is what the simplest of the problems require. It is NOT a direct application to be learnt easily. Nor are they adhoc problems, which you can think a lot about and finally solve.I'm not very active on Topcoder ( only had some 10-15 contests there over the past 2-3 years ) but what I observe is that Topcoder is more suitable for beginners. I think almost anybody with a basic introduction to programming can solve the Level One problems in the lower division. Nothing of that on Codechef. It's either some simple graph theory, dynamic programming or binary search or something. Most beginners arent aware of that. And there are again problems which are really hard. You should really login to the Topcoder Arena before a SRM and see how people are discussing the solutions. That clearly convinced me that at least half a dozen people are collaborating. I think there would be more, since not all cheats are inane and would discuss things so publicly like in a Topcoder Arena. That was the most shocking part about Codechef to me.Codechef should probably remove the prizes for a month and see how many actually end up competing, More so, if the average number of Accepted by a user is the same. Sorry Kshitij, I was just a bit drunk at that time. Blame it on my vodka. Sorry, sincere apologies really. I hope you wont take it to your heart. Good to see that at least you agree with me.I think, this site is not a place to offer constructive criticism. You seem to only want to hear the “Codechef is great, we like Codechef” comments. Great, so be it, I wont say much. Like talking in the air.

  20. Oh sure,
    The “thinking and figuring out part” is a good metaphor for “Ctrl-C Ctrl-V and modify”.
    How many agree that it is impossible for an absolute new-comer to figure out something like binary search or dynamic programming in a real contest. That is what the simplest of the problems require. It is NOT a direct application to be learnt easily. Nor are they adhoc problems, which you can think a lot about and finally solve.
    I'm not very active on Topcoder ( only had some 10-15 contests there over the past 2-3 years ) but what I observe is that Topcoder is more suitable for beginners. I think almost anybody with a basic introduction to programming can solve the Level One problems in the lower division. Nothing of that on Codechef. It's either some simple graph theory, dynamic programming or binary search or something. Most beginners arent aware of that. And there are again problems which are really hard. You should really login to the Topcoder Arena before a SRM and see how people are discussing the solutions. That clearly convinced me that at least half a dozen people are collaborating. I think there would be more, since not all cheats are inane and would discuss things so publicly like in a Topcoder Arena. That was the most shocking part about Codechef to me.
    Codechef should probably remove the prizes for a month and see how many actually end up competing, More so, if the average number of Accepted by a user is the same.

    Sorry Kshitij, I was just a bit drunk at that time. Blame it on my vodka. Sorry, sincere apologies really. I hope you wont take it to your heart. Good to see that at least you agree with me.

    I think, this site is not a place to offer constructive criticism. You seem to only want to hear the “Codechef is great, we like Codechef” comments. Great, so be it, I wont say much. Like talking in the air.

  21. Hi admin, I think, To manage the future codechef's monthly contest, you should decrease the time duration. And It should be of 2-3 days only during a weekend.So that, every one can participate.

  22. Hi admin,
    I think, To manage the future codechef's monthly contest, you should decrease the time duration. And It should be of 2-3 days only during a weekend.So that, every one can
    participate.

  23. I think of CodeChef as a niche programming contest. Sure, there's plenty of short contests that are more popular than CodeChef, but that's precisely why we *don't* need a shorter contest. If someone wants a short contest, they already have so many options. If someone wants a long contest, not so many.On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's the Al Zimmermann contests. These contests last for months, have fully public test data, and don't forbid collaboration. They don't forbid public discussion of algorithms, but do forbid posting explicit solutions or code. And some of their contests draw over 400 participants. So let's stop with the “shorter must be better because short contests are more popular” argument.As for the cheating issue, no contest is cheat free. Nearly every TopCoder SRM has someone in division 2 who submits one or two problems less than a minute after opening them. And that's only the people dumb enough to cheat without discretion. Some may remember a few months ago there was some compelling evidence that a red coder had been cheating regularly. In shorter contests, people will just find different ways to cheat.

  24. I think of CodeChef as a niche programming contest. Sure, there's plenty of short contests that are more popular than CodeChef, but that's precisely why we *don't* need a shorter contest. If someone wants a short contest, they already have so many options. If someone wants a long contest, not so many.

    On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's the Al Zimmermann contests. These contests last for months, have fully public test data, and don't forbid collaboration. They don't forbid public discussion of algorithms, but do forbid posting explicit solutions or code. And some of their contests draw over 400 participants. So let's stop with the “shorter must be better because short contests are more popular” argument.

    As for the cheating issue, no contest is cheat free. Nearly every TopCoder SRM has someone in division 2 who submits one or two problems less than a minute after opening them. And that's only the people dumb enough to cheat without discretion. Some may remember a few months ago there was some compelling evidence that a red coder had been cheating regularly. In shorter contests, people will just find different ways to cheat.

  25. i also agree with vijay, i personally know people who have no good knowledge about algorithms and they solve 3-4 problems every month. I know a person who personally told me she doesnt know Dynamic Programming and then in the next month she solved a DP problem. Due to this long format its very easy for the people to cheat and this has been happening since quite some time

    1. U seem to be crazy man….. even if sm1 doesnot know DP , cant she figure out a problem ? (i mean somebody thought about DP right ?? it just doesnot dropped from sky). U assholes just mug up 2-3 algos and start thinking u r real smartass.

  26. i also agree with vijay, i personally know people who have no good knowledge about algorithms and they solve 3-4 problems every month. I know a person who personally told me she doesnt know Dynamic Programming and then in the next month she solved a DP problem. Due to this long format its very easy for the people to cheat and this has been happening since quite some time

  27. it is still easy to cheat in 2-3 days contest. A 5-hour contest is more than enough, and for all those people who think they'll miss out the contest, they can always solve the problems in the practice room, if they truly want to “learn”. But i see that here, people just want to earn money, and so they cheat

  28. it is still easy to cheat in 2-3 days contest. A 5-hour contest is more than enough, and for all those people who think they'll miss out the contest, they can always solve the problems in the practice room, if they truly want to “learn”. But i see that here, people just want to earn money, and so they cheat

  29. Aren't there Topcoder Marathon Matches? How come Codechef is a niche? That makes no sense. Besides I wonder if Codechef is ever about what established people like you want. As they say it's for betterment of the Indian community. Do you really think that it's really beneficial as a format. Please stick to the topic, wandering away from the subject doesnt help. And secondly Topcoder does successfully ban all it's cheats. And it's 100 times more credible than Codechef, sure you can cheat but not as easily as you can in Codechef.

  30. Aren't there Topcoder Marathon Matches? How come Codechef is a niche? That makes no sense.
    Besides I wonder if Codechef is ever about what established people like you want. As they say it's for betterment of the Indian community. Do you really think that it's really beneficial as a format. Please stick to the topic, wandering away from the subject doesnt help. And secondly Topcoder does successfully ban all it's cheats. And it's 100 times more credible than Codechef, sure you can cheat but not as easily as you can in Codechef.

  31. A better alternative is to keep 3 contests in a month, on weekends at different times. But I guess that won't allow you to discuss with friends during the contest, so probably Codechef wont do that.

  32. A better alternative is to keep 3 contests in a month, on weekends at different times. But I guess that won't allow you to discuss with friends during the contest, so probably Codechef wont do that.

  33. Another thing, these people who require to cheat, will not be able to do so, in the shorter version. Since getting solutions from others isnt that simple. Besides, I think it's very risky to pass on one's solution in the shorter version, for the sender may get caught himself too. Definitely the stakes are much higher in a shorter contest.

  34. Another thing, these people who require to cheat, will not be able to do so, in the shorter version. Since getting solutions from others isnt that simple. Besides, I think it's very risky to pass on one's solution in the shorter version, for the sender may get caught himself too. Definitely the stakes are much higher in a shorter contest.

  35. good going Mr.Vijay Bomani. You think , we all can't reach you if you use different name.Now, could you please put your real name or real codechef's handle , So that people can know about an funny indian :- who is a good coder but a jealous also.- who thinks, he is the only coder in india who practices so much and is able to maintain his TC rating. But because of disappointment by his performance on codechef , he uses codechef forum to post his stupid comments using an unknown name.

  36. good going Mr.Vijay Bomani. You think , we all can't reach you if you use different name.
    Now, could you please put your real name or real codechef's handle , So that people can know about an funny indian :
    – who is a good coder but a jealous also.
    – who thinks, he is the only coder in india who practices so much and is able to maintain his TC rating. But because of disappointment by his performance on codechef , he uses codechef forum to post his stupid comments using an unknown name.

  37. In a contest where you have prizes, people almost always cheat. If you really want to see the motivation of people to learn, you should conduct contests without having prizes.
    That way you will get a much higher quality of participation, which would in turn allow you to set even more hard and beautiful problems and which would trigger more participation :).

    I believe you can have a short contest once in a while which has prizes, and you should have fewer prizes instead of having 20 prizes in a contest where about 200 people totally compete. The reason for that is that if you have just 5 prizes, people would work harder and practice to come in top 5 than to cheat their way into the top 20 people. My claim is based on the assumption that its much harder to come into top 5 if you cheat (the people who cheat would have to be of reasonable skills already and in general people who have higher skills tend to not cheat) rather than just copying solution of 1 or 2 problems and coming in top 20.

    If one of the Codechef's motive is to hire people who perform well in Codechef contests, then you should definitely have longer contests without prizes so that people who are actually passionate about programming will compete, not just people who care about a prize money of 1000 or 2000 INR.

  38. In a contest where you have prizes, people almost always cheat. If you really want to see the motivation of people to learn, you should conduct contests without having prizes.That way you will get a much higher quality of participation, which would in turn allow you to set even more hard and beautiful problems and which would trigger more participation :).I believe you can have a short contest once in a while which has prizes, and you should have fewer prizes instead of having 20 prizes in a contest where about 200 people totally compete. The reason for that is that if you have just 5 prizes, people would work harder and practice to come in top 5 than to cheat their way into the top 20 people. My claim is based on the assumption that its much harder to come into top 5 if you cheat (the people who cheat would have to be of reasonable skills already and in general people who have higher skills tend to not cheat) rather than just copying solution of 1 or 2 problems and coming in top 20.If one of the Codechef's motive is to hire people who perform well in Codechef contests, then you should definitely have longer contests without prizes so that people who are actually passionate about programming will compete, not just people who care about a prize money of 1000 or 2000 INR.

  39. Totally Agree ! . You should remove the prizes for once a see how many people actually participate. Codechef should consider reducing that top20 to top10 atleast

  40. Totally Agree ! . You should remove the prizes for once a see how many people actually participate. Codechef should consider reducing that top20 to top10 atleast

  41. Removing prizes doesn't guarantee that there will be no cheating,for instance there is no prize money in SPOJ but still people cheats there.A cheater deprives himself/herself from the great satisfaction of mastering a programming problem. Not only will he be uncovered: people watch the rankings of the contest,most scrutinizes each and every solutions of the winners and it's not hard to trace which are stolen, thus he/she will have to live with the moral implications himself/herself.

  42. Removing prizes doesn't guarantee that there will be no cheating,for instance there is no prize money in SPOJ but still people cheats there.

    A cheater deprives himself/herself from the great satisfaction of mastering a programming problem. Not only will he be uncovered: people watch the rankings of the contest,most scrutinizes each and every solutions of the winners and it's not hard to trace which are stolen, thus he/she will have to live with the moral implications himself/herself.

  43. I don't see whats there to get so worked up about the whole issue. Contests like codechef are a platform to exercise/sharpen your skills on. Regardless of whether others cheated… you still had the option of working on the problems honestly. The opportunity to “learn” or improve from the contest still remains completely unaltered.If anyone is at a loss from the whole incident , its the people who cheated.I don't go along with the suggestion of shortening the contest duration ; questions like in the last month's contest require some time to solve (at least for a novice like me). Besides , it'll ruin the “so good that it was open 10 days” feel.Now , although I don't care about the prize … being able to solve the questions is a prize enough for me. But for keeping the competition strong , we'd require the prize money intact . (we can reduce their number tho)All i can say is , ignore the fools who cheat … its their loss , not yours. PS : i had a good discussion with the culprit behind the public leaking of solutions … he was of the point of view that “people” are born cheaters and that they have no ethic sense .

  44. I don't see whats there to get so worked up about the whole issue. Contests like codechef are a platform to exercise/sharpen your skills on. Regardless of whether others cheated… you still had the option of working on the problems honestly. The opportunity to “learn” or improve from the contest still remains completely unaltered.If anyone is at a loss from the whole incident , its the people who cheated.

    I don't go along with the suggestion of shortening the contest duration ; questions like in the last month's contest require some time to solve (at least for a novice like me). Besides , it'll ruin the “so good that it was open 10 days” feel.

    Now , although I don't care about the prize … being able to solve the questions is a prize enough for me. But for keeping the competition strong , we'd require the prize money intact . (we can reduce their number tho)

    All i can say is , ignore the fools who cheat … its their loss , not yours.

    PS : i had a good discussion with the culprit behind the public leaking of solutions … he was of the point of view that “people” are born cheaters and that they have no ethic sense .

  45. Cheating is inevitably linked with contest with prizes. Just to add to what somani said: Considering the educational intent behind codechef, you could organize onsite meetups and training camps. Being onsite pretty much takes away almost all the cheating strategies. If you organize onsite events in ~2-3 locations across India over say 2 months and I think it will serve both educational and recruitment objectives well.

  46. Cheating is inevitably linked with contest with prizes.

    Just to add to what somani said:

    Considering the educational intent behind codechef, you could organize onsite meetups and training camps. Being onsite pretty much takes away almost all the cheating strategies. If you organize onsite events in ~2-3 locations across India over say 2 months and I think it will serve both educational and recruitment objectives well.

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