Rahul : Well , honestly I wouldn't want the contest to be shorter for I am a novice and I found the longer duration of the competition to be an advantage for me , not just in getting my submissions accepted but in improving my algorithmic skills as well . My general scenario was reading the problem statement and then making a brute force solution thus getting TLE , then trying to optimize it and still get another TLE . Then however I would search Google for new and better algorithms and try to implement them and keep on doing this until I get a solution accepted . During the June Algorithm Challenge , I had to submit nearly 50 submissions per problem to get my solution accepted and at least 10 of them had different strategies and various had different types of optimizations thus explaining and answering some of my questions as to which solutions are better and why . Most of my time during June Algorithm Challenge , in fact all of it , was gone into thinking about “Why did that Algorithm gave an TLE ” and thus learning about new algorithms . Even after the contest , most of my time was spent in learning new algorithms , strategies etc and solving problems at other judges like UVa and I am able to see some improvement in me . No more of my programs are getting TLEs at other judges now . So I would really really wish for a longer contest .

a) I’m happy with a week long contest. While there was room for optimisation on the challenge problem, I basically solved the rest of the problems in the first few days, played around with the challenge for a while, and then just sat back and waited, knowing a heap of people would end up solving the problems and it would come down to who felt like spending the most time playing with minor optimisations for the challenge problem. 32 people solving all problems was probably a bit too high.

b) Another contest in the month is excellent, but whatever you do, PLEASE don’t make it less than 24 hours long – make it a multiple of 24 hours. A worldwide contest is ruined otherwise; I have to put up with the fact that most online contests are in the middle of my night, but I don’t want this to happen to Codechef. Please keep it a true worldwide contest, rather than just for people who are lucky to have it suit their timezone.

c) I agree that forum posts need to be checked more regularly. The description of the challenge problem was completely wrong for the majority of the contest, and I’m sure lead to many people getting frustrated with the fact that any optimisations gave them a worse score.

And finally, d) While this may not be possible with the current online judge system, how about something like this to make challenge problems work better. Provide two sets of test cases; one which works like currently with unlimited submissions, and one, which is used in the final scores, with limited submissions per day which doesn’t display the results for a day (or something similar). That way you can still play with your solution on the first set, still be able to make sure the real case will work fine on your code, yet prevent the reverse engineering or mass submissions issues.

e) It was still a great contest

a) I’m happy with a week long contest. While there was room for optimisation on the challenge problem, I basically solved the rest of the problems in the first few days, played around with the challenge for a while, and then just sat back and waited, knowing a heap of people would end up solving the problems and it would come down to who felt like spending the most time playing with minor optimisations for the challenge problem. 32 people solving all problems was probably a bit too high.

b) Another contest in the month is excellent, but whatever you do, PLEASE don’t make it less than 24 hours long – make it a multiple of 24 hours. A worldwide contest is ruined otherwise; I have to put up with the fact that most online contests are in the middle of my night, but I don’t want this to happen to Codechef. Please keep it a true worldwide contest, rather than just for people who are lucky to have it suit their timezone.

c) I agree that forum posts need to be checked more regularly. The description of the challenge problem was completely wrong for the majority of the contest, and I’m sure lead to many people getting frustrated with the fact that any optimisations gave them a worse score.

And finally, d) While this may not be possible with the current online judge system, how about something like this to make challenge problems work better. Provide two sets of test cases; one which works like currently with unlimited submissions, and one, which is used in the final scores, with limited submissions per day which doesn’t display the results for a day (or something similar). That way you can still play with your solution on the first set, still be able to make sure the real case will work fine on your code, yet prevent the reverse engineering or mass submissions issues.

e) It was still a great contest

2. Admin responses in forum
You could leave some of the queries to be answered by the community. But there should be upper limit, as in if a query has been unanswered for more than some number of hours, then it must be looked into by the Admin himself without more wait.

3. I love the contests. Keep them going!

2. Admin responses in forum
You could leave some of the queries to be answered by the community. But there should be upper limit, as in if a query has been unanswered for more than some number of hours, then it must be looked into by the Admin himself without more wait.

3. I love the contests. Keep them going!