Hello Codeforces community, I am writing this blog to bring attention to a highly suspicious activity that occurred during today's AtCoder Beginner Contest 480 (ABC 480). Take a look at the current standings and the submission timestamps of the rank 1 user (n1ggerZhuo): • Problem A: 3:15 • Problem B: 3:15 • Problem C: 5:50 • Problem D: 3:15 • Problem E: 5:01 • Problem F: 4:27 • Problem G: 4:27

Why this is practically impossible:

As competitive programmers, we all know how much time it takes to read a problem statement, understand the logic, type the code, and submit it. Here, the user has submitted Problems A, B, and D exactly at the 3-minute 15-second mark. Not only that, but higher-level problems like F and G were both submitted at 4:27. Solving, coding, and submitting multiple complex tasks at the exact same second is humanly impossible during a live contest. This strongly indicates that the user did not solve these problems genuinely. Instead, it looks like a pre-prepared script or an automated tool was used to dump all the correct solutions into the system simultaneously, or the solutions were leaked beforehand.

A growing concern for the community

Competitive programming relies entirely on fairness and the spirit of problem-solving. When someone bypasses the system so blatantly, it destroys the competitive environment and hurts the morale of participants who work hard for every single point. I hope the AtCoder coordinators take immediate action against this user and investigate how such simultaneous submissions are bypassed. What are your thoughts on this? Have you noticed similar patterns in recent contests? Let's discuss.