Cauchico's blog

By Cauchico, history, 3 years ago, In English

Hello Codeforces!

Back from the dead, we'd like to invite you to the online mirror of the Helvetic Coding Contest, Switzerland open championship! You can find past mirror from 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

The Helvetic Coding Contest used to be held yearly at EPFL. This year, the Polympiads association is bringing it back alive! The contest itself took place on April the 13th, but the online mirror is scheduled on Saturday, 4th of May, 09:05 Swiss time. The duration is 4:30.

Rules:

  • you can participate in teams or individually with a single computer (1-3 people),

  • standard ACM-ICPC rules (no hacking),

  • the contest is not rated,

  • if you have participated in the onsite contest, please do not participate in the mirror.

Contrary to what the mirror's date might lead you to believe, this year's theme is Harry Potter. It features 7 series of 3 related tasks with increasing difficulty (easy/medium/hard). Note that we do not guarantee that all problems are solvable using python.

Thanks a lot to:

UPDATE: Editorial is out, also available as a PDF. Thanks all for participating!

UPDATE 2: Congratulations to the winners who solved all 21 subtasks:

  1. thinking: Ormlis, Mangooste
  2. Captain take me!: crazy_sea, A_zjzj, 275307894a
  3. japan406364961: Nyaan, kotatsugame, risujiroh
  4. Qingyu Fan Club: _map_, GapGapGap, InfiniteStarlight
  5. Idea Generators Club: tedi_2.0, Denisov, Valera_Grinenko
  6. 244mhq
  7. jiangly

UPDATE 3: Also huge congratulations to the winners of the onsite round (no prewritten code or Internet access was allowed, so the conditions were a bit different):

  1. Felt smart (might un-participate later) — 20 subtasks
  2. Nameless Silly Moon — 18 subtasks
  3. ***IsEvil? — 17 subtasks
  4. Breakfast Master Toaster — 16 subtasks
  5. Hairy Stofler — 16 subtasks
  6. thethingswedoforpizza — 15 subtasks
  7. huchibuchi — 15 subtasks

We hope you enjoyed the problems, please share your thoughts in comments!

  • Vote: I like it
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  • Vote: I do not like it

| Write comment?
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3 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +58 Vote: I do not like it
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3 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it +9 Vote: I do not like it

move closer, don’t spoil your eyes

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3 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it -143 Vote: I do not like it

Contrary to what the mirror's date might lead you to believe, this year's theme is Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a controversial series, a poor choice by the organizers :|

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    3 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
    Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    Harry potter is one of the most famous series of all time. I have read every book atleast twice and seen each movie >= 5 times. Thats how good it is. Stop bring politics into everything. NOBODY CARES.

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      3 years ago, hide # ^ |
       
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

      Harry potter is one of the most famous series of all time

      ... and RCB is the most supported IPL team of all time. Popularity of some entity in the modern day only indicates the number of midwits the creators of said entity managed to brainwash through advertising.

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      3 years ago, hide # ^ |
       
      Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

      When we're talking about things with such immense cultural value and influence as Harry Potter, we're not really bringing politics into it. Because it already is there, whether we care about it or not.

      The series certainly carries a particular messaging on what's right and what's wrong, and since it is targeted at younger audience, it is also very likely to at least to some extent shape their values and worldview.

      It is of course up to us whether to agree or to disagree with the ideas that J. K. Rowling put into the book, and I personally would be pretty much against canceling such a monumental work just due to a disagreement with its messaging. But turning a blind eye to its political nature and pretending that it's just not there is also a very questionable, and a somewhat dangerous act. Being conscious about what we promote and what political ramifications it carries is the least we can and must do.

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    3 years ago, hide # ^ |
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    Please separate the art from the artist.

    EDIT: Oh I thought this was about JK Rowling's questionable comments. Well, still these aren't nearly serious enough things to justify boycotting such a famous series.

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    3 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
    Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

    Any monumental series would be controversial in particular social circles. Sending a general link to the page doesn't help at all, unless you at least outline which particular messaging of the series you disagree with so much that you think it deserves to be boycotted. On a side note, if we keep being too nitpicky about what series we theme stuff around, we will end up in a very grey and boring world, because it is the only way to remain totally uncontroversial.

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      3 years ago, hide # ^ |
       
      Vote: I like it -12 Vote: I do not like it

      To be specific, I find it odd that a competition with the following eligibility policy on their website

      Eligibility: Every person, irrespective of age, gender, nationality, or any other factor, is welcome to participate.

      chosen a theme for itself that was well-known for the mistreatment of minorities. In retrospect, I agree that my message was likely unclear to people out of the loop.

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Vote: I like it +26 Vote: I do not like it

As an onsite participant, the problems are good!

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3 years ago, hide # |
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What is difficulty level of problems?

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    3 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
    Vote: I like it +45 Vote: I do not like it

    Each problem has 3 versions (subtasks) with increasing difficulty (easy/medium/hard), therefore I hope there is something interesting to solve for everybody!

    The easiest task is probably around Div2A, while the hardest task is probably around Div1E.

    The contest as a whole is easier than Universal Cup rounds or strong ICPC regionals or World Finals. I would expect a World Finals medalist team to solve everything in about 3 hours, but my perception might not be spot on.

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Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Which one do you suggest? Participating as a team or individually?

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Are you related to the font of Helvetica?

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Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

Wonderful set of problems, although i could only solve B3.

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how to solve c2,c3?

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    3 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
    Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    You ca share C1 approach.

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    3 years ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    Think about a matching on the graph. If you start from an unmatched node what happens?

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      3 years ago, hide # ^ |
       
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      Isn't matching too much for such a problem?

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        2 years ago, hide # ^ |
         
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        No, because most problems about moving on a graph use it.

        Here is a classical one:

        Q: A and B take turns moving on a graph and cannot visit the same node twice. The one who cannot move loses. Who wins? A: if the graph has a perfect matching, B wins; otherwise, A wins.

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    Spoiler
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      3 years ago, hide # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2  
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      I understood most of the part, but can you please explain:

      If dpx=0 --> losing state --> dpp = dpp−1

      Why decrementing the dpp??

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        3 years ago, hide # ^ |
         
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Because after changing the root, x will not be a child or p anymore, so it can't use x anymore as a way to win, so the number of children that p can use to win decreases

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Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

When I passed D1, I couldn't believe that I got the first blood!

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Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

Do these problems have an editorial? Or can we watch other participants' codes? Thanks!

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Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

W contest!

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Auto comment: topic has been updated by Petr (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by Petr (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by Petr (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

High Quality tasks!!!

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Codeforces Helvetic Contest 2024

Detailed Video Tutorial B1 + B2 + B3

https://youtu.be/1s9NN3D3TWY

(Language => Hindi)

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Weak test cases on F1 where Quaffle doesn't move at all! However it does on F2 which confused me a lot :(

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for people wondering the onsite winner team was adamant and mango_lassi from eth zurich :)

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2 years ago, hide # |
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Will the rating of problems in this contest be updated?

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2 years ago, hide # |
 
Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I rarely do these kinds of mirror contest as the major problem for me is that the statements always make me hard to understand. I wish there are some explanations at the end of each problems, but they mostly don't have that.

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2 years ago, hide # |
 
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C and D >>>>>>G Anyone agrees ?