Back in September $$$2023$$$, when MathModel didn't even exist on Codeforces, I was just a school student with a daily routine: go to school, complete my homework, and, if I had some free time, sketch or solve math problems. I had just finished my monthly exams, and life felt pretty uneventful with no activities.

Then, out of nowhere, I received an invitation to the Palestinian Collegiate Programming Contest (PCPC) $$$2023$$$ to represent an unofficial school team. The organizers were in a rush and sent us some poorly written documents about how the contest worked. One document simply said, "Study binary search, combinatorics, number theory, graph theory," and a long list of other topics—overwhelming, to say the least. At that time, I barely knew how to code, so I went into the contest relying purely on hope and luck.

As soon as the contest started, I quickly flipped through the problem pages and spotted an easy if-else problem. I coded it, submitted it, and got accepted. University teams looked at me in surprise—later, I realized I had achieved the first accepted solution among all teams in the contest.

By the end, I managed to solve three problems out of eleven, if I remember correctly.

That was a satisfying experience for me, and since I had been introduced to competitive programming, I found myself more interested in problem-setting rather than just solving. For a while, I believed that a newbie couldn’t create problems, but after PCPC—and after seeing some beginners involved in setting rounds—I decided to try something new.

I reached out to Codeforces Headquarters and the Div. 3 & 4 Coordinator, Vladosiya. He informed me that I needed to form a team of at least two authors to be able to set a round. So, I made a post about it. Most of the competitive programming community thought I was joking, while others believed in me. I proposed some problems in a group chat, and we started discussing them.

However, our conversation lasted only one day before everything fell apart. War broke out in the region, and I lost everything I had. I was forced to leave competitive programming behind as I evacuated.

I had neither a laptop nor an internet connection for a month. Despite that, I kept sketching some ideas on paper. Once I regained access to the internet, I contacted Vladosiya and proposed some problems. Some were accepted, while others were rejected.

One of my problems was constructive, but I wasn't familiar with writing checkers for them. I tried reading the testlib.h documentation but couldn't understand it. Looking through recent announcements, I found a round that featured a constructive problem. So, I reached out to the coordinator of that round, errorgorn, to ask about it, and this is what we got:

errorgorn already mentioned that I was lying to him , so not really , it's really a Div3.

I won’t lie — every day that passed, I was getting more excited to continue working on that Div. 3 round. But I eventually reached a point where I really wanted to finish it. So, I decided to seek help from one of the top Python masters on Codeforces, someone I had personally learned a lot from — hxu10.

I asked him to join me, and everything went smoothly. He proposed two hard problems, Vladosiya suggested some modifications, and eventually, we had a potential Div. 3 problem set.

On the same day that Vladosiya reviewed hxu10's problems, he complained about how I was overloading him. For a moment, I thought he was just having a tough day, but then I realized that I had indeed been overwhelming him. So, I apologized to him that day.

The following week, I had a very limited internet connection and asked Vladosiya for a quick discussion about updates on the Div. 3 round. He responded with:

I'm sorry, I'd like to help make that round, but I cannot continue with that.

That day, I felt really disappointed—everything I had worked on was gone in a second. I tried to ask him if there was another option, but it turned out that I had been belittling a huge mistake: cheating.

I had a very bad habit of cheating in programming contests. I admit that I wasn't enjoying the contests or participating as fairly as I should have. You can probably guess how I responded to Vladosiya ...

I had to find another way forward, so I asked Hemose about proposing a Div. 2 round. He was busy but, to his credit, he tried to help. While I was asking for "quick coordination," he couldn’t assist me with that, so I asked him to ask with Vladosiya about why he was no longer coordinating with me (which made me seem pretty suspicious). After that, I didn't hear from Hemose again.

After that, I kept lying to myself and gaslighting myself into thinking I was doing fine by cheating, until Palestinian_Dream was blocked.

I started fresh with DARKPAST and contacted TheScrasse to coordinate a Div. 2 round. He welcomed the idea, and I came up with problems for the round from D2A to D2E, with D2F still remaining. I talked with Az3ar about problem-setting and how to improve, and I asked him to join me as a co-author for the round. He suggested a great problem and told me he was fine with not being listed as a co-author.

TheScrasse accepted the problem, and I prepared it quickly (and incorrectly). Then, I began the testing phase. Overall, I received positive feedback, except for some incorrect tests in D2F. chromate00 prepared the problem, and the problem set was ready.

During testing, BurnedChicken suggested a harder version of D2D, turning it into D1E. I was torn between keeping the task and writing the entire contest or letting chromate00 join as a co-author for Div2. I wasn't sure for a while, but eventually, I made my decision and let chromate00 join. Now, I have a D1E task with BurnedChicken.

TheScrasse asked me about schedule of the round and I proposed $$$10$$$th of August $$$2024$$$ , in the near span of time I've already cheated in Codeforces Round 959 sponsored by NEAR (Div. 1 + Div. 2) , A few days later, Codeforces' plagiarism check detected me, and I received a bunch of messages asking how I could be cheating. I decided to take the hard route and quit all of my activities. A few days after that, KAN reached out to ask me what I had done about the cheating in Codeforces Round 959 sponsored by NEAR (Div. 1 + Div. 2) , I've not replied and participated Codeforces Round 962 (Div. 3) felt dumb and cheated again.

In the Discord server for the round, KAN officially declared that the round was called off, and that’s how it ended.

This marked two unsuccessful attempts at writing a Codeforces round.

I’d like to apologize to everyone involved in this crazy situation, and I promise that I’m doing better. I’m looking forward to having a Codeforces round once the opportunity allows.

And I hope that this blog serves as a lesson for every fresh starter in competitive programming.

I'd like to apologize to all of the following :

1. Vladosiya for abusing and cheating , I hope that we can reach a better and efficient communication in soon future.

2. hxu10 for not completing the Div3 round due to my silly actions.

3. Hemose for not being transparent about my silly actions.

4. KAN sorry for ruining the Div.2 round as well as wasting efforts of everyone contributed in that round.

5. TheScrasse sorry for misusing your special chance of coordinating me , thanks for your constructive conversation and discussion .

6. Az3ar about the Div2F problem , I'm sorry for it , and I promise change is coming , looking to be great like you :) .

7. Testers of The called-off Div.2 Round : Binary_Thinker , chromate00 , BurnedChicken , Dominater069 , physics0523 , JYJin , jamesbamber , abotaha23 , francesco , MagentaCobra , _RED__ , scottlv95 , nicolasalba , antoniomsah , Asbjorn , Rushdi , bugdone , martosinc , clockwork , Munkh-Orgil416 , Angooo , dazlersan1 , Doloria , Candy.man , cat_coder for wasting efforts , but I promise I'll not let you miss the next one (If I was lucky enough to have it).

8. MikeMirzayanov for all that mess.

MathModel isn't just a new "fuzzy" name , it's a real new start , legit start , constructive start , doubting ? , I've done for problem-setting for the past three months and I'm thirsty for more , I've mistaken too much , But now I've waken up , it's time for redemption , time for cooking problems.

I'd appreciate comments/dms from the involved parties in this crazy situation hopefully so we fix all that mess.

Thanks to chromate00 , -Nebula and Satoru for proofreading!