neitoroxin's blog

By neitoroxin, history, 3 months ago, translation, In English

I don't think anyone doubts that when we solve problems on platforms like Codeforces, we are primarily sharpening our mathematical thinking, and only secondarily our algorithmic skills (such as implementation, data structures, etc.). However, lately, I’ve noticed a rather controversial trend: sometimes problemsetters don’t seem to put much effort in and just cram pure mathematics into a basic <input/output> format. You've probably encountered this in recent rounds: you open a problem, and its entire "solution" boils down to guessing a formula or a pattern just by looking at the samples.

By no means am I denying the benefits of math, and I love it myself. But the context in which it is currently being served leaves much to be desired. I’m absolutely not against problems where proving a specific fact serves as the foundation for the solution (for instance, optimizing a brute-force search).

Instead, I suggest adding more variety to the problems—incorporating things like "olympiad tricks" into the implementation itself. This way, the mathematical idea would only be half the battle, while the other half would depend on how you implement it. Such an approach would maintain a healthy balance and keep everyone happy: mathematics wouldn’t go anywhere, while the implementations would become far more interesting and engaging.

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Auto comment: topic has been translated by neitoroxin (original revision, translated revision, compare)

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Pls no implementation slop

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    I also agree that tasks which are just 'implementation for the sake of implementation' are incredibly annoying. But then again, you could say the same about 'math for the sake of math.' I’m just calling for a fair balance between the two in these problems.

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Yes, we can be annoyed at some hidden strategies in those Bleddest math problems, but at the same time would you rather write 100+ lines of code per problem starting at Div 2 B.

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When you get to 2k2-3k5 range, problems incorporate decent amount of "olympiad tricks" (recent ones includes 2229FGI, 2209F, 2205F, 2187C). I think the reason why Div 2 ABC (and D to some extent) feels so mathy is because it's hard to design an easy "technical" problem without coming across as standard and uninteresting.