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Overlooked's blog

By Overlooked, history, 5 months ago, In English

Imagine the following problem:

You are given an array of length N. The length is dynamic and may increase or decrease over time. Each element is supposed to be either:

  • M (male)
  • F (female)

A query asks for the number of F elements, because only they qualify for the women's championship.

A straightforward solution is to count the number of F values.

The Humanity Judge says:

Accepted.

The European Judge says:

Wrong Answer.

You check the statement again. You check your code. You check the tests. Everything looks correct.

Then the judge explains:

You forgot about non-binary participants.

At this point you realize what happened. Instead of actually counting F, your solution did:

answer = array_size - count(M);

which works perfectly under the assumption that every element is either M or F. Unfortunately, reality introduced a third value.

Now array_size - count(M) counts both F and non-binary elements. So your solution is no longer counting women.

It is counting: cpp not_men

which is a completely different query. The Humanity Judge accepts the binary model.

The European Judge insists that the complement of M is not necessarily F.

And thus a simple counting problem becomes a lesson in set theory, logic, and modern contest judging.

Moral of the story: Never assume

Universe = {M, F}

unless it is explicitly stated in the problem statement.

Otherwise, your Accepted solution may suddenly become a Wrong Answer on hidden tests.```

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5 months ago, hide # |
 
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this is very downrated bc u didnt explain ur point clearly, it criticises different points of view (humanity, EWPC), and this is a very controversial topic.
Ur point of view says that humanity says that gender is binary, yet humanity never seems to agree on anything.
btw, if this was a real cf problem, then it would explicitly state the possible values of the elemnts of the array, e.g. array of integers, array of characters either M or F. It would never give a hidden character that can be present unless the problem writer is stupid.
There is enough flamewar in https://codeforces.me/blog/entry/154575#:~:text=Europe%20Women%27s%20Programming%20Contest%202026, we dont need an extra sloppy blog post.

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    5 months ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    I don’t understand where the bias or lack of clarity is.

    There is a clear straight line: you are either male or female. Why is there all this complexity around other categories that have appeared in the last 50 years?

    In data science, how can you favor an outlier? We usually remove them, or describe them as noise since they are originally errors or rare cases that deviate from reality.

    The article in the attached link is exactly what I’m referring to, because I don’t understand how a person is being classified. Anyone can randomly choose and say they are non-binary.

    Is it like a problem with “M”, “F”, and “?” where you try to determine whether “?” is male or female? I suppose “?” cannot stay unknown all the time.

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      5 months ago, hide # ^ |
       
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      so now ur being sexist by claiming that non-binary people dont exist, and that they are nothing

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        5 months ago, hide # ^ |
         
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        Maybe if (gender not in ["M", "F"]): alert("Undefined Behaviour")

        hint 1: logically you have father and mother which equal Male and Female hint 2: non-binary not male and not female

        Q 1: how can we get non-binary child from male and female Q 2: Is there any non-binary people before 50 years ago? Q 3: Is this related to Genetic mutation caused by radiation ?

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          5 months ago, hide # ^ |
           
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          As I explained to you below, sex is biological and cannot change, but gender can change because it is about who you identify as.

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          5 months ago, hide # ^ |
           
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          also, this has not suddenly 'sprung up' in the last 50 yrs.
          search up 'Alan Turing'

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5 months ago, hide # |
 
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Bro didn't just cook, he burned the whole kitchen down.

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Do you have seriously nothing better to do than advocate that non-binary people are anomalies and deserve to be ignored?

Let other people get on with their lives and tell yourself to GET A LIFE.

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    5 months ago, hide # ^ |
     
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    OOOOHHHH BURRNNN

    YOU GONNA TAKE THAT FAM U GONNA TAAKE THAT?

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    I have a life, but I'm genuinely confused by this idea What is the reasoning behind the claim that there are gender categories beyond men and women? From a biological reproduction standpoint, a baby requires male and female reproductive roles. So how does the concept of non-binary fit into that biological framework? I'm asking because I don't understand the argument.

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      5 months ago, hide # ^ |
       
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      I see. Is English your native language? If it is then perhaps I can help you understand. Sex is biological. Gender is to do with identity. Though it isn't possible to completely change your sex, gender is something that you can change. Eg. if your sex is female, your gender could still be non-binary. Or if your sex is male, your gender could still be male. Does that help?