For those of you who missed it, we bring you our recap of the interesting July CookOff. Read on to get our detailed dissection of the contest.

In Div A, uwi from Japan secured the 1st spot. Further improving his contest rank from June CookOff, where he stood 2nd, uwi added 124 points to his rating in this month’s contest to finish with 2848 rating. He currently holds the overall country rank 1 and global rank 8 on the platform.

Close behind uwi and occupying the 2nd position was progmatic from Belarus. progmatic (with a username, which one can only assume is an amalgamation of words — programmer and pragmatic) increased his rating by 139 points and made a comeback into the 7-star league, after getting briefly downgraded post July Long Challenge. Both uwi and progmatic managed to score a perfect 5 in the contest. The others to finish in the top 5 were — mrkerim, sam__2 and andrey_efremov — securing ranks 3, 4 and 5, respectively.

Over in Div B, perucmpamypa from Ukraine seized the first position. This was perucmpamypa’s first contest on CodeChef, and he was able to increase his rating by the maximum possible value: 275 points. The 2nd place was snatched by nstyrl. Coincidentally, it was nstyrl’s first contest on the platform, too and even he increased his rating by 275 points.

Despite the otherwise great performance that the contest witnessed in Div B, there wasn’t anybody to manage a perfect 5 score. juckter, eshoru, and godwind were the other contestants to finish within the top 5 in Div B — finishing with the 3rd, 4th and 5th positions, respectively.

Amongst school students, andrey_efremov (rank 5) and tasmeemreza (rank 13) showcased real programming prowess in Div A; while in Div B, some of their equally impressive counterparts were: eshoru (rank 4), godwind (rank 5) and arshiadadras (rank 7). Overall, 96 participants increased their rating significantly enough to jump from Div B to Div A, including 3 school students.

Coming to contest problems: christian_grey from Div B was the first to successfully submit a solution in the contest, solving PLAYSTR within 4 minutes of commencement. Meanwhile, the first scorable problem to be cracked in Div A happened to be BDGFT, successfully submitted by progmatic in the 9th minute. The last problem to be cracked in Div A was MGICMENU, solved by KADR; while for Div B, that problem was WARTLND, solved by arshiadadras.

As we conclude this exciting recap, we’d love to express our enormous gratitude to our July CookOff problem setting panel:

Setters: Anik Sarker (imanik), Hasin Rayhan Dewan Dhruboo (ezio_26)

Tester: Teja Vardhan Reddy (teja349)

Editorialist: Taranpreet Singh (taran_1407)

Statement Verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

Translators:

• Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

• Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (songuku95)

• Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

• Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

• Mandarin Translator: Gedi Zheng (stzgd)

Lastly, a huge shoutout to our admin Hasan Jaddouh (kingofnumbers) without whose assistance we wouldn’t have been able to pull the contest off this effortlessly.

Do let us know your thoughts and opinions on the July CookOff in the comments below. Until next time, keep coding!

After the really interesting and intense June Lunchtime, we returned with the Long Challenge contest of the month. Keep reading to get our detailed breakdown of the contest.

Beginning with Div A: the 7-star ACRush finished at the top of the leaderboard. ACRush, making a Long Challenge appearance after a gap of 3 months, managed to increase his rating by 128 points to ultimately end with a rating of 2985. He currently holds the overall rank 1 in China, and is globally ranked as the third best player. Close on ACRush’s heels was andres96. Even andres96 made a comeback on the platform after a long time, almost a year. And what a great one, indeed! andres96 bumped his rating up by 146 points, and jumped from being a 5-star to now holding the 6-star tag. The contest featured remarkably good performance from China and India in Div A, with 11 participants each in the Top 30.

Another participant to shine out in the Div A was rumblefool, from India, who ranked 4th in the contest and managed to raise his rating by 134 points. The others to finish in the distinguished Top 5 were romawhite and Oleg, ranking 3 and 5, respectively.

Over in Div B, loopfree from China secured the top spot. Having started competing on CodeChef only this year, loopfree increased her rating by 208 points and jumped from Div B to Div A. Snatching the 2nd spot in Div B was marco_l_t. This was marco_l_t’s first contest on CodeChef, and he grew his rating by the maximum possible value: 275 points. The other participants to make it to the Top 5 in Div B were alina_alina, spookywooky, and dbh_, occupying the 3rd, 4th and 5th position, respectively.

The contest bore particularly good fruits for school students: In Div A, 12 out of Top 30 were school students, while the number for Div B within the same bracket was 9. Meanwhile, minamoto from Div A (Rank 19), and loopfree (Rank 1) and alina_alina (Rank 3) from Div B were some of the female programmers that really stood out in the contest.

Overall, 320 participants migrated from Div B to Div A, including 15 school students. While simultaneously, 103 coders slipped down to Div B from Div A.

Finally, coming to problems: the problem to get first overall successful submission in the contest was CHFM from njha1999 in Div A, just 4 minutes into the contest. In Div B, too, CHFM was first problem to receive a successful submission, solved by apower2 in the 5th minute after the start. The problem to be cracked last in both the division was LVMFFN, solved by ACRush on the second day in Div A, while in Div B, it was solved by foreverlasting on the sixth day.

As we conclude this recap, we express our immense gratitude to our July Long Challenge problem setting panel:

Setters:

• SNKAPT: Aviroop Pal (aviroop123)

• CIRMERGE: Erfan Alimohammadi (erfaniaa)

• GUESSPRM: Bohdan Pastuschak (bohdan)

• CHFWAR: Sombit Bose (deadshot_sb)

• LVMFFN: Kasra Mazaheri (kmaaszraa)

• MXMN: Jiang XunCi (nqiiii)

• CCC: Abhinav Jain (iamabjain)

• PRTAGN: Pranjal Rai (prnjl_rai)

• CHFWAR2: Alei Reyes (alei)

• MMAX: Mayank Agrawal (mayank1601)

• CHFM: Tanay Mishra (mishra_tanay_)

Testers: Alipasha (alipasha132), Kasra Mazaheri (kmaaszraa)

Editorialist: Anand Jaisingh (anand20)

Statement Verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

Translators:

• Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

• Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (songuku95)

• Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

• Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

• Mandarin Translator: Gedi Zheng (stzgd)

Ultimately, a huge thanks to our admin Alei Reyes (alei) whose help ensured that we were able to pull the contest off effortlessly.

Do let us know your thoughts and opinions on the July Long Challenge in the comments below. Plus, don’t forget to practice. There are highly engaging contests scheduled this week and the next. Until next time, keep coding!

Close on the heels of the exciting June CookOff, we bring you our recap of June Lunchtime. Continue reading to get our full in-depth coverage of the contest.

In Div A, a total of 8 participants managed to score a perfect 500. gennady.korotkevich, with overall Global Rank 1, led the charge, securing the first position in this contest. The 7-star from Belarus managed to further solidify his unsurpassed rating by adding another 60 points, finishing at jaw-dropping 3488. This is Gennady’s first contest appearance in months, having undergone a period of dormancy since January this year. The 2nd and 3rd positions were secured by gainullinildar from Russia and uwi from Japan. With this contest, gainullinildar made a re-entry into the elusive 7-star club, improving his rating by 138 points. The others to manage a perfect score were: natsugiri, tautsjasiunsas, andrey_efremov, mohammed200218, and yamunaku.

Over in Div B, compiler_101 and oahcc were the only two participants to score 500, ranking 1st and 2nd in the contest, respectively. compiler_101 , student in Cairo, added 191 points, and consequently, made the jump from Div B to Div A. Parallely, oahcc also levelled up from Div B to Div A, increasing his rating by 169 points. Amongst school students, 4 finished in the Top 10 for Div A; while 3 managed to secure a spot in the Top 10 for Div B.

Overall, 93 participants jumped from Div B to Div A. While simultaneously, 30 coders slid down from Div A to Div B. Meanwhile, fly_37, adibov and ultrac emerged as the biggest gainers in Div A, improving their rating by 186, 180, and 179 points, respectively. While in Div B, brayand and conformisto increased the rating by the largest margin, by 233 and 220 points, respectively.

Coming to the problems: PAJAPONG was the first problem to be successfully solved overall, with entry submitted by singhal_coder in Div B, in just 3 minutes after the commencement of the contest. In Div A, BURARRAY was the first scorable problem to receive a successful entry, made by chandler_1729 in the 7th minute. Funnily enough, for both Div A and B, the last scorable problem to be cracked was FUZZYCON.

As we conclude this recap, we express our immense gratitude to our June Lunchtime problem setting panel:

Setters: Mladen Puzić (thesitzr), Raj Khandor (hackslash_123)

Tester: Michael Nematollahi (watcher)

Editorialist: Taranpreet Singh (taran_1407)

Statement Verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

Translators:

• Mandarin Translator: Hu Zecong (huzecong)

• Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (songuku95)

• Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

• Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

• Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

Lastly, a big thank you to our admin Hasan Jaddouh (kingofnumbers) whose hard work allowed us to pull the contest with such ease.

Do let us know your thoughts on the June Lunchtime in the comments below. Plus, don’t forget to practice your problem solving skills and participate in the long form July Long Challenge, which began on 5th July. Until next time, keep practicing!

The June Long Challenge was anything but uneventful! The contest resulted in some big country rank shuffles, particularly for Russia and India. Besides, Div A witnessed an amazing performance by Indian participants, with Indians filling 9 out the Top 20 positions and 2 in the Top 5. Now we recap our Cook-Off, a contest known for being short, yet fierce. Read on to find what went down.

Let’s start with the winners: In Div A, argos, a 7-star coder from Moscow, secured the top position. argos increased his rating by 132 points in this contest, and now holds an overall global rank of 13 with an enviable country rank of 3. Trailing close behind, in the 2nd position, was uwi from Japan. He added 56 to points to his ratings, to finish at 2700 points. Presently, uwi holds overall global rank 24 and country rank 1. Strikingly, both argos and uwi submitted all solutions without a single incorrect answer. The other noteworthy mentions in Div A are: isaf27, karolis_kusas, html_sanek, farhod_farmon, and andrey_efremov, respectively securing ranks 3 to 7 in the contest.

Over in Div B, the top two positions were secured by geothermal and vmaddur, both from the United States. geothermal, earned ended the Cook Off at rank 1, and bumped up his rating by 203 points, leaping from 3-star to 4-star coder status. vmaddur followed a similar trajectory to geothermal, increasing his rating by 185 points and jumping from 3 stars to 4-star level. The rest of Div B’s Top 20 was dominated primarily by Indian participants, with 14 spots occupied by participants from the country.

The school students fared particularly well in June Cookoff; with 4 out of the Top 20 spots in Div A and 5 in the Div B Top 20 being secured by them.

In Div A, zxcv123456 emerged as the biggest gainer, improving his rating by 171 points. While in Div B, amit_neogi and praccoder both managed to boost their rating by 225 points. amit_neogi and praccoder’s rating bump also led to them levelling up from 3-star to 4-star.

Overall, 132 participants made the transition from Div B to Div A, including 8 school students. While, 29 participants slipped from their position in Div A to Div B, effectively translating to a new addition of 102 new entrants in Div A.

Speaking of problems: the first one to be submitted successfully was EXAM1 by geothermal in Div B — astonishingly, 3 minutes into the contest. In Div A, it was ANTEATER; it was submitted by smelskiy within 8 minutes of contest commencement. Akin to June Long Challenge, the problem to be cracked last was the same for both Divisions: SECRECP.

Congratulations to all the winners! And to the rest, never  fear, another chance at coding greatness awaits in the form of the upcoming Lunchtime contest. As we conclude this recap, we express our immense gratitude to our problem setting panel:

Setters: Hasan Jaddouh (kingofnumbers), Erfan Alimohammadi (erfaniaa), Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

Tester and Editorialist: Teja Vardhan Reddy (teja349)

Statement Verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

Translators:

• Mandarin Translator: Hu Zecong (huzecong)

• Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (songuku95)

• Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

• Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

• Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

Lastly, a huge thanks to our problem panel admin Hasan Jaddouh (kingofnumbers) whose hard work allowed us to pull the contest effortlessly and smoothly.

Do let us know in the comments your thoughts on the June CookOff. Until next time, keep practicing!

Post our May Lunchtime contest, we bring you the monthly recap of our highly contended June Long Challenge. Keep reading to get our in-depth coverage of the contest as well as some interesting stats.

In Division A, white2302, a student of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, secured the top spot. This is a significant achievement, and continues a trend of  remarkable Long Challenge performances. But, this is the first time that white2302 placed first in Long Challenge, having hovered between Contest Rank 4 and Rank 10 since February this year. white2302, presently a 7-star coder, managed to add another 135 rating points to finish at an admirable 2774, placing him at the top of the Russian charts.

The second spot in Div A was grabbed by vishal4556 from India’s Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani. vishal4556 returned to compete after a considerable break, and still managed to increase his rating points by 136 to take it up to 2706. Not just that, this rating bump also led to vishal4556 seizing the overall India Rank 1 post the contest.

Incidentally, India witnessed an incredible representation in the Top 20 of Div A, with 9 Indians altogether and 2 in the Top 5. Apart from white2302 and vishal4556, cheng2014, sinus_070, and zjp_shadow were the other participants occupying the Top 5 rank, respectively.

Over in Division B, he_____he, from China, seized the first position. he_____he (with a rather unusual & funny name, even by CodeChef’s standards) added a sizable 204 rating points to ultimately acquire another star (now a 4-star) and finish at 1965 rating. robbinb1993, heltion, gjaiswal108, and vanbang9710 were the other Top 5 rank holders in Div B for this contest, respectively. Meanwhile, school students continued their ongoing streak of stunning performances, with 5 featuring in the Top 20 for Div A, and 6 in Div B.

The June Long Challenge particularly helped change the Division demographic: More than 320 participants increased their ratings, to jump from Division B to A. The number for school students in this group was a good 13. At the same time, over 100 participants slid down from Div A to Div B. Effectively, there was an addition of 220 new entrants in Div A. It would be interesting to see how this change plays out in the upcoming contests.

Furthermore, akee and megatron10 were the biggest gainers in Div A, respectively adding 184 and 183 rating points. Whereas, in Div B, priyanshu_py and vinu_1998 managed to add a massive 237 and 234 rating points, respectively.

Lastly, coming to the problems: SUMAGCD was the first problem to be solved overall, and it was successfully submitted by ashmelev (a 7-star) from Div A, 6 minutes into the contest on 7th June. The first problem to be submitted in Div B was PROXYC by chandler_1729, towards the end of the 9th minute. Interestingly, the problem to be cracked the least, in both Divisions, was FGTREE. It was successfully submitted by mcfx1 in Div A, 7 hours into the contest, while in the Div B, it was eventually solved on the 4th day, by diamond_duke.

With almost half of 2019 already behind us, and many more contests scheduled ahead, it will be fascinating to see how the rest of the year unfolds for our active community of programmers.

As we conclude this recap, we express our immense gratitude to our problem setting panel:

Setters: Alei Reyes (alei), Danylo Mocherniuk (daniel_1999), Andrey Filimonov (filyan), Reshab Gupta (coolreshab), Roman Derkach (roman_derkach), Ritesh Gupta (rishup_nitdgp), Abhishek Vanjani (ucntstopme), Saurabh Yadav (saurabhshadow), Kartik Singhal (kartik_354), Aman Kumar Singh (aman_robotics), and Lewin Gan (lg5293)

Tester: Radoslav Dimitrov (radoslav192)

Editorialist: Teja Vardhan Reddy (teja349)

Statement Verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

Translators:

• Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

• Mandarin Translator: Hu Zecong (huzecong)

• Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (songuku95)

• Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

• Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

Lastly, a huge thanks to our problem panel admin Alexey Zayakin (alex_2oo8) whose hard work allowed us to pull the contest effortlessly and smoothly.

Do let us know in the comments your thoughts on the June Long Challenge. Until next time, keep practicing!

After our heated and long-drawn May Challenge, we’re back with our highly contested May CookOff. So, without further ado let’s just dive right into it.

In Div A, the top spot was secured by the 7-star progmatic from Belarus. Presently ranked 21 globally, Progmatic has shown an awe-inspiring improvement over time. In the past 3 months alone, he has increased his overall rating by over 250 points and jumped from the orange to the red band. A huge accomplishment by any metric, and not to mention, a motivation for many. Further, progmatic is only 6 points behind the globally ranked 20, hzhz.

Apart from progmatic, there were 4 other participants in Div A who managed to score a perfect 5 in the CookOff — sam__2, mnbvmar, tautsjasiunsas, and farhod_farmon. For sam__2 and mnbvmar, the top 5 rank should hold greater importance since it was their first ever CookOff. Hats-off to them! Unfortunately, one of CodeChef’s regulars and a 7-star, uwi, didn’t fare as well as one would have hoped. Nevertheless, he ranked 8 in May’s CookOff; and overall holds the CodeChef’s global rank of 32 at the moment.

Now, over in Div B: A surprising 12 participants managed to attain a perfect 5, with CodeChef debutant geothermal leading the pack. geothermal is a student from the United States studying in Pennsylvania and is currently a 3-star. Closer home, one_more_fake, another debutant (although, with a slightly unusual handle), was the only Indian who got a score of 5 in Div B.

Moreover, school students have gradually upped the game, and have begun to pose a serious competition to our experienced coders. And this CookOff was no different. Though Div A featured only one school student in top 20, Div B had a whopping 7 school contenders listed in top 20. A great feat! We’re eagerly looking forward to the next few months to see whether the scale of balance tilts towards our young programmers.

As with all our contests, May CookOff, too, was an opportunity for many to increase their ratings. A startlingly 89 participants seized that chance, having climbed from Div B to the elusive Div A. Five of these participants happened to be school students. This follows the past trend: May Challenge saw over 150 participants graduate from Div B to Div A. These figures suggest that the stage in Div A is set for fiery battles, even more than they already are.

As we conclude this recap, we express our immense gratitude to our problem setting panel:

• Setters: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope), Pritom Kundu (anchor)

• Tester and Editorialist: Teja Vardhan Reddy (teja349)

• Statement Verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

• Translators:

  • Mandarin Translator: Hu Zecong (huzecong)

  • Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (songuku95)

  • Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

  • Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

  • Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

And as always, many thanks to our problem panel admin Hasan Jaddouh (kingofnumbers) whose hard work helped us execute the contest effortlessly.

Do let us know in the comments your thoughts on the May CookOff. Until next time, keep practicing!

Our 66th Lunchtime took place on November 24 and it was a showdown to remember with a major rank list shake-up! Keep reading to read who gained ratings and who lost them in the November Lunchtime.

Leading the pack in Div 1 was uwi, who is presently ranked number 1 in Japan and number 5 globally. Following our 100th Cook-Off, we mentioned in our Contest Recap that uwi was less than a hundred rating points short of a spot in the global top 5. Looks like, uwi took up the challenge and dethroned China’s ACRush to claim the world number 5 spot. But ACRush is a regular in our Long Challenges, stay tuned to see if he makes a comeback next month.

Other notable mentions in Div 1 are zemen from Russia who moved to 5-star status in this competition and rns5 from North Korea who went from 5 stars to 6. natsugiri, also from Japan, rounded out the top 4, all of whom scored 500. rns5 has risen rapidly through the rating system, gaining a whopping 6 stars since joining CodeChef in August this year. He needs just about 182 rating points to join another, rns4 another celebrated Kim Il-sung University student, in the 7-star club.

In Div 2 mzuev from Russia, took the lead going from 2 to 3 stars in the process. Close behind was xuzijian629 from Japan who was participating in a CodeChef contest for the very first time and made a rating jump of 275 points, which is the maximum jump possible! He promises to be a coder to watch out for. Dubai based antrikshh claimed the third spot, with Indonesia’s sidiqha in 4th place. While no Indians made it to the top 10 in Div 1, 4 Indians secured spots in Div 2’s top 10. A huge shoutout to its_ulure, mindjolt, radon12 and shubham698.

School students were well-represented in the November Lunchtime Div 1 with 9 of them earning places in the top 20. The best performers were tmwilliamlin from Taiwan who was at rank 5, farhod_farmon from Tajikistan at rank 7, and Ukraine’s adalbert at rank 8. Div 2’s best performing school students were its_ulure from India at rank 5, arafat_01 from Kazakhstan at rank 9, and fake_here from China at rank 15.

Special mentions go to female coders amina283 from Azerbaijan and mh755628 from Bangladesh, both of whom made it to the Div 1 top 100. In Div 2, it was hui_yin from Hong Kong and India’s own viralivora who reached the top 100.

Joining xuzijian629 on the list of users who made sizeable rating jumps are mzuev from Russia and tyakennikku from China who improved their rating by 233 points each. Indonesian sidiqha enjoyed a rating jump of 209 points while India’s own its_ulure from West Bengal, increased his rating by 201 points.

The highest participation this month came from  India, followed by Bangladesh and Ukraine. India’s National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra and Jaypee Institute of Information Technology had the most participants in this Lunchtime. If you’d like to spread the word about competitive programming in your school or college, start by creating or joining a CodeChef Campus Chapter today.

Probability (PPAP) emerged as the least solved problem of both Divisions with no successful submissions in Div 2 and just 7 in Div 1. Event (EVENT) was the most solved problem of Div 2 with 769 successful submissions out of a total of 5738 while in Div 1, Beats and Pieces (BPS) got 169 successful submissions from a total of 576. Check out the editorials for this Lunchtime’s problems here.

As we conclude this recap, we tip our hats to our problem setting panel:

• Setter: Rehim Memmedli (nots0fast)

• Tester: AmirReza PoorAkhavan (arpa)

• Statement verifier: Jakub Safin (xellos0)

• Editorialist: Hussain Kara Fallah (deadwing97)

• Translators:

  • Mandarin Translator: Hu Zecong (huzecong)

  • Vietnamese Translator: Team VNOI (khanhptnk)

  • Russian Translator: Fedor Korobeinikov (gomelfk)

  • Bengali Translator: Mohammad Solaiman (solaimanope)

  • Hindi Translator: Akash Srivastava (devils_code)

And as always, many thanks to our problem panel admin Hasan Jaddouh (kingofnumbers) whose hard work helped us pull the contest together.

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 the rating of all those users by X, 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.

1. 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.

2. The second concern was that it would take quite a long time for such users to regain their previous ratings.

3. 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!

The Chef

Hola Amigos,

We are delighted that we turned Senary this March. All this would not have been possible without  the problem setting panel in our kitchen. We are truly thankful to everyone in our kitchen for all those delicious problems, mouth watering editorials and awesome contests. We truly appreciate the efforts that our chefs put behind making this possible.

We are happy to announce that we have revamped the problem setting guidelines. You can read more about it here:

• General Guidelines
• Problem Setting
• Problem Testing
• Editorials

Some highlight of the newly released guidelines:

1. Increase in compensation of Problem Setting, Lunchtime Testing & Lunchtime Editorials writing.
2. In some of our previous contests (especially Long contests), the comments were not getting timely reply. We have highlighted all such issues and clearly demarcated the responsibilities of Problem Setter, Tester & Editorialist.
3. All the problems used in Long contest will be partially graded (except Challenge problem). Read how to upload partially graded problem on CodeChef
4. Problems for Long contests will be accepted to be used in a contest only if the problem setter gives all the materials (brief editorials, commented solution, test data & generator, etc)
5. Some explicit explanation of Roles and Responsibilities of Tester, Setter and Editorialist.
6. Specification of timeline for all contests, modification in the testing process. Read more about it here.
7. Slight change in Problem difficulty levels for Long and Short contest (Addition of Super Hard problem). Submission Indicators and expected Subtask explainations for problem of varying difficulty levels. Read more about it here.
8. Frequency and schedule for Problem Setter,Tester and Editorialist.

If you would like to join our kitchen as problem setter or tester or editorialist, you can apply here.

With Love and Regards,
Suraj Sharma
Team CodeChef.