Set on the Easter Sunday, our April Cook-Off 2014 already had a festive tone set for it. With all the colorful Easter parties happening all around, we were delirious about our Cook-Off. By no means, it was less than a fun Easter party. There were loads of people working hard to come up with the best solution to the five problems in the two and half hour extent of the contest. The best thing about this revelry of ours was that we had guests from all over the globe. Therefore, putting our party hats on, we delved into the proceedings of the April Cook-Off 2014. And, with this post, we will relive all those fantastic moments once again.
After the big fat April Challenge 2014, we were high in spirits for our April Cook-Off as well. The Cook-Off was again received with great enthuse by the partakers, and as always it was a sheer treat for us here in the office. As the clock struck 9:30 IST on the hot Sunday night of the Cook-Off, the participants ushered in the contest with their submissions. Unperturbed by its name, most of the submissions in the wee moments of the contest came on SNAPE. With this, the problem setter Vinayak Garg had given most of the participants a reason to smile. While the flurry of submissions continued on SNAPE, there were some trying their hands on other problems also. Although it took some time for them to get hold of the other problems, we started seeing submissions on the other problems as well.
The first half of April Cook-Off 2014 perhaps was the most exciting first half of any Cook-Offs in recent times. We saw plethora of submissions flowing in right from the start, but most of them were on a single problem. Therefore, while SNAPE got a lot of love in the start (that is a strange sounding sentence), the remaining four BICO, TCP, DIREL, and LOGO were not very easy to crack. And, even the total number of submissions combined on all these problems was not even close to that of the SNAPE. This made the second half of the contest a tad dull. Seeing all this, it is only fair to say that the problem set this time around was a tad on the difficult side. However, it was tough to tell so, at the beginning of the contest.
Now, while the falling numbers were marring our initial thrill, the return of gennady.korotkevich gave us some joy. Gennady was making a comeback to the Cook-Offs after 14 months, so it was thrilling as well as gratifying. You can put it on the hard problem set, but his return was in no way the ideal comeback that you dream of. Despite securing the top spot in the rank tables inside the first hour of the contest and holding on to it until the last minute, even he was not able to crack all the five problems and thus the McHefs 3D Logo remained devoid of any submissions. He did give it a shot in the final minutes of the contest, but got no success. However, that had no affect in the outcome of the contest and as expected, he topped the rank table when the clock struck 12:00 pm, the scheduled end time of the contest.
Now, let us meet our winners featuring in the rank tables:
We will start with the non-India top ten:
Now, the Indian top five:
Congratulations to all the participants for their amazing performance.
The final stats for the contest were as follows:
The contest indeed was an exciting one, with some testing problems for the participants. So, let us meet and thank the problem-setting panel for all their efforts. We start with our problem setter Vinayak Garg for the fiery problem set. The tester & Russian translator Gerald Agapov and Mandarin translator Minako Kojima for spicing them up with their translations. Finally, the editorialist Constantine Sokol for providing probably, the most vital dish for this Cook-Off, if you have not tasted them yet, go check them out. They will help you get over the distress of not solving enough problems during the contest.
We hope you will like the editorials and will wield your programming proficiency for many such tests in the future.
We will now be wrapping up this post and move towards the next one in line, the April Lunchtime 2014. However, not before thanking you all for being part of yet another brilliant contest and hope to see you around.
You can always send you love, feedback, and suggestions to us at feedback@codechef.com. You can even catch us at (022) – 30797709 (between 11:00 am to 8:00 pm IST during weekdays) for any queries or inquiries you might have.
That will be all from us, for now.
Till next contest, Good-bye everyone.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
April, let us just say is the most competitive time of the year. The exam season had just ended, and the race to the admission window is on. Everyone is ready with their preparations for plethora of entrance exams scheduled ahead for them. The rush to the stationary shops is more frequent, than to the playground. In such a competitive time, it is tough to catch someone taking a breather, or asking them about their summer vacation plans. So, we too refrained ourselves from doing that, and instead added more fuel to the burning competition desire with our April Challenge 2014. How did it go? You ask. We will tell you all through this post.
Our long challenges in general have been all about giving the budding programmers an opportunity to learn and compete with the big guns. The first couple of days of the contest see the sea of new comers trying their hands in the problems served. We see many new names featuring in the rank tables in the wee hours of the contest. However, as the contest moves in the nature of the competition changes and that is when the big guns take over. However, the April Challenge 2014 saw a different start with the first submission coming from vineetpaliwal, on POTATOES inside the first five minutes of the contest. It was quite a fascinating start to the contest and set the tone straight for the coming days.
The April Challenge opened up with seven problems, but as the problem setters worked on the remaining three, the participants enjoyed the seven in hands. POTATOES and CNPIIM was the flavor of choice for the newbies, but the presence of vineetpaliwal, fancycoder, dracowane, xorfire_ and some more recognized names, kept everyone on their toes, which ensures a healthy competition during the contest. In the meantime, our problem setters added the remaining three problems in the contest.
With all ten problems on the table, we were all set for the first weekend of the April Challenge 2014, and so were the participants. Moreover, by the end of it, the contest was well on its course to be one of the biggest CodeChef challenges. Leading the Global and Indian ranks by then were Ri Mun-Chol and Gunjan Sharma respectively. To have new names leading the rank tables always adds an exciting punch to the contest. However, their reign atop was not long, and by the mid way into the contest the big guns in vineetpaliwal and mugurelionut took over the rank tables. Thus began the race to the top among the biggies.
The problems created by Shalini Shah, Lalit Kundu, Dmytro Berezin, Bruno Oliveira, Ilya Malinovsky, Sergey Nagin, Anudeep Nekkanti, A Surya Kiran, Gerald Agapov, and Tiancheng Lou put the participants through an enjoyable test to keep up with the competitive environs around. The problems might have been enjoyable, but they certainly were not a walk in the park for many, as even after the first weekend, there were two problems devoid of any submission. Thanks to our testers Shiplu and Md Mahbubul Hasan, who ensured that the problems cater to the wide spectrum of participants rather than being favorites of only the ones on the rank tables. The additional spices in Mandarin and Russian translation came from the ever-present Gerald Agapov, and xiaodao. The immense hardwork put into by our problem-setting panel was nicely rewarded by the participants through the huge number of submissions made during the ten-day course of the contest. However, while POTATOES saw submissions in excess of 5K, the LMATRIX3 only saw four. There was a little something for everyone though, and we hope you had your fare share of fun and competitiveness.
Now let us move towards the rank tables to meet our winners.
First, the Non- Indian Top 10:
Now, the Indian top 20:
Now, let us meet our special achievers.
Firstly, the top five non-Indian school students:
Now, the Indian top five school students:
Finally, the participants with highest scores for challenge problem Sereja and Permutation apart from the winners.
First, the non-Indian top three:
Now, the Indian top three:
Congratulations to all the winners and participants. We hope you enjoyed the contest!
Now, the final figures for the contest:
All those figures put April Challenge 2014 among the biggest long challenges we have had on CodeChef. We hope to have many more of those and to see you all being part of them.
That brings us to the end of this late post for the April Challenge 2014. Nevertheless, before we sign of let us escort you to the desert for the contest in the editorials for the problems of the contest. Therefore, if you had a hard time cracking them up during the contest, these editorials will help you understand the best approach towards solving them and will sharpen your programming skills for the future. So, do go through them thoroughly.
With that, it is time to draw curtains on this April Challenge post and move towards the next posts in line starting from April Cook-Off 2014. We are sorry for putting these posts so late, but trust us we are working on our lethargy and shall be on schedule soon. Until then, kindly be with us.
As always, feel free to get in touch with us for your feedback, suggestions, or any query at feedback@codechef.com.
You can also reach us at (022) – 30797709 (On weekdays from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm)
Till next time, Good-bye everybody.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
Our Lunchtime programming series has been a global platform for young programmers to proclaim their advent among the best in the business. Some have already done that in the small span of 10 months of Lunchtimes existence, and many others are in pursuit of it. The likes of acmonster, sy2006, etc. have already become a force to reckon, even in our Long Challenge and Cook-Offs. And while, there is a long way ahead of these young programmers before they establish themselves in the elite club, we think if they carry on in this pace, it should not be long before they reach their destination.
The March Lunchtime 2014 brought to us yet another shinning start, which caught everybody’s attention since the beginning of the series, and perhaps was patiently waiting in the milieu to announce her arrival. Although we knew that eventually it will happen, we just did not knew when. So, there we were waiting for the clock to ring 2:00 PM IST and present to us our first Indian victor in our Lunchtime contests in meteroa. We have done it already, but let us once again join hands to congratulate her on this astonishing feat.
We were, and are still awestruck with the performance of meteroa, and we have all the reasons to be so. Firstly, she is a girl, and although we have had some tremendous girl programmers in our contests, to have one from school is very special. Then, she is home schooled at Chashak Gurukul, which is just mind blowing considering the fact that we get participants from almost all the elite schools around the glove. Finally, the fact that she is there in the IOI Training camp preparing to represent India at the IOI World Finals. It is just too much of excitement to handle. Nevertheless, we like such thrill and would not mind receiving them more often. Therefore, way to go meteora, we are proud of you, and wish you all the best for all the future competitions you will be competing in.
That meteoric performance was not without any competition to slow it down. We saw some nerve wrecking competition in the final hour of the contest. Huzecong, of High School Attached to Hunan Normal University Hunan Province, China and labib666, of BAF Shaheen College Jessore, Bangladesh were trying their best to secure the top spot in the rank table. No one was ready to let go without a solid fight. However, in the end meteora triumphed them all and painted her name all over the rank tables, when the contest ended. And we all had big smile and cheer on our faces.
Despite such a tremendous performance, it is not meteora, who currently tops the March Lunchtime 2014 rank tables. We have tehnar of Saint Petersburg Lyceum 239 Saint Petersburg, Russia with total score of 340 topping meteora’s score of 317. That is because tehnar updated his institution name after the contest. It would have been interesting to see how meteora would have combated had he been there on the rank tables during the contest. However, we are sure that we will get plenty of chances to experience many such contests in coming Lunchtime contest. Moreover, to be sure that you are there on the rank tables, right from the beginning make sure that you have updated your school name in your profile.
Now, let us meet our top performing candidates for March Lunchtime 2014:
Firstly, the non-Indian top 10:
Now, our Indian Top 10:
Congratulations to all the winners for their tremendous performance!
Now, let us see the numbers that matters for our March Lunchtime:
With so many students, enjoying the lip-smacking problem set of our lunchtime, let us meet, and thank our amazing problem-setting panel responsible for it. Multi-tasking Sergey Kulik, who once again was the Russian translator for the contest, prepared the problem set and to add more to his duties for the contest, he was the editorialist for the contest. Phew, that is a lot of hats on a single head. Nevertheless, we must say he donned them all to perfection. Roman Rubanenko tested the problem set, while Minako Kojima provided the Mandarin translation for the problem set. It is always gratifying to be in such esteemed company and we hope to remain so in the coming contests as well.
With all that, we conclude this already-delayed March Lunchtime 2014 blog post and move towards the April contests.
The summers are here and we are sure you already have a beautiful summer vacation plan in place. So, enjoy your vacations, but do not miss all the fun here at CodeChef contests.
If you have any feedback, suggestions, or a vacation card, feel free to send them to us at feedback@codechef.com.
That will be all from us. Till next time TA-TA
See you at the contests.
Regards,
Rudreshwar
Team CodeChef
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