pilliamw's blog

By pilliamw, 12 months ago, In English

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Fall 2025 PHSCO! Over 40 teams participated across both divisions, which is a new record and extremely inspiring for our second-ever hosted contest. Things went a lot more smoothly this year and we hope that all (or at least a majority) of the problems were enjoyable. On a personal note, being able to run PHSCO is an amazing opportunity and I can't thank all of you enough for making it possible.

Anyways, without further ado, congratulations to all of the winners in each prize pool! Please check your emails for prizes, which should be sent out within this week. (If you don't receive anything after a week, please contact me!)

Standard Division (Pre-College):

  • 1st — Entropy — TheInfiniteLoop — Narayana Educational Institution
  • 2nd — 1 orz 1 norz — Eason Li, Ethan Chang (easonli416, spoonspoon1006) — Ellen Fletcher Middle School, Davidson Academy
  • 3rd — Exertxfy — Somil Varshney, Shiven Khurana (Exertxfy, BlackPearls) — Montgomery Blair High School

Advanced Division (Pre-College):

  • 1st — ecnerwala orz — Vihaan Sharma, Jason Shnaper (WorldWarV, silverkeep) — Piedmont Hills High School
  • 2nd — Why always me? — Nathan Katov, Marcus Liu (NK_, Sucram314) — Colonel By S.S, University of Toronto Schools
  • 3rd — Roman Mielamud (rrmpwn_) — Mariupol Lyceum of Kyiv City

Advanced Division (Global):

  • 1st — Necromancer — Jhao Wei Fan (SorahISA) — National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
  • 2nd — Bar of USACO Camp — Yiming Li, Xianghong Luo (liympanda, lxhgww)
  • 3rd — ecnerwala orz — Vihaan Sharma, Jason Shnaper (WorldWarV, silverkeep) — Piedmont Hills High School

And a huge shoutout to everyone who helped prepare the contest:

  • Problems were written and prepared by me, William Park (pilliamw)
  • Standard Division was tested by Aanshi Patel (shilab) and Ben Ross (benmross)
  • Advanced Division was tested by Anna Zhou (the_808808th_user)
  • Problems were proofread by Nicole Sabova (._nicolesss_.) and Brooke Yin
  • Announcement banner was drawn by Brooke Yin
  • Prize pool sponsored by the Poolesville HS Science, Math, and Computer Science magnet program

Below are editorials to each problem across all divisions, roughly ordered by difficulty. If you liked/disliked a specific problem, please leave feedback using the "Rate the problem" widget! Anyone can access and submit to problems via the public group link.

We hope to see you again for the Spring Fall 2026 PHSCO. Onwards and upwards! — William Park ---

General Feedback

How was the overall contest?
How was the difficulty distribution (Standard Division)?
How was the difficulty distribution (Advanced Division)?
In future contests, should the leaderboard be frozen in the final hour?

Std. A — Entry Tickets

Solution
Code
Rate the Problem

Std. B — Candy Bowl

Solution
Code
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Std. C — Hepta Hex

Solution
Code
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Adv. A — Candy Collection

Solution
Code
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Std. E — Potluck

Solution
Code
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Adv. B — A Tale of Silk & Song

Solution
Code
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Std. G — Trick-Or-Treat Lane (Standard Div.)

Solution
Code
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Adv. C — Spiderweb

Solution
Code
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Adv. D — Bonfire

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution
Code
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Adv. E — Bewitching Bitwise Game

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution
Code
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Adv. F — Path Planning

Hint 1
Hint 2
Solution
Code
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Adv. G — Soulbound Spins

Hint 1
Hint 2
Solution
Code
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Adv. H — The Mist (Easy Version)

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution
Alternate Solution
Code (First Solution)
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Adv. I — Grid Coverage

Hint 1
Hint 2
Solution
Code
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Adv. J — The Great Ghost Duel

A more in-depth tutorial for this problem will be written soon.

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution
Code
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Adv. K — The Mist (Hard Version)

A more in-depth tutorial for this problem will be written soon.

Hint 1
Hint 2
Solution
Code
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Adv. L — Trick-or-Treat Lane (Advanced Division)

A more in-depth tutorial for this problem will be written soon.

Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Hint 4
Hint 5
Hint 6
Solution
Code
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  • Vote: I do not like it

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