nousername's blog

Why problems have long story?
By nousername, history, 9 years ago, In English

Lots of Codeforces users English is not main language so their English is not good enough. Problemsetting please just write a question , inputs and outputs please do not write long story not about question. Sorry for my bad English. Thanks. MikeMirzayanov

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

Hmhmhm...

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

Nice joke :p Problem description is the most interesting things in problem solving. :D

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

    do you think I am jokking

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

      yeah. Its kinda joke. Because nothing is gonna happen what you desire.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

The story of a task is an entersting and compulsary part of it. Moreover, it is usualy easier to remember the task by its story. Additionaly, I think that vocabulary used in the stories are not so complicated. Therefore, there is no need to replace it.

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

    it takes time to read the story and after that u might not even understand the problem ( take a look at today contest problems ) but u can get a 3 lined statement better and faster

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

English isn't my mother language but i don't have any issue with long statement . Sometimes i found very amazing stories there those are very interesting to read out . And i guess you are not only practicing for CF . You may have plan for IOI or ICPC . There you will find long statements for sure . But Bad translation can ruin someone contest . Its better to read every problem statement with a non russian speaker before the contest to ensure the quality of translation .

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

Why are you assuming that purpose of such contests should only be algorithm problems put in a straightforward manner?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

So you want problem statement to be like : - Do DFS and find cycle exists - Process queries by segment/binary index tree etc etc..

Then only problem we will have left is math problems and I think those problems are always direct

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -17 Vote: I do not like it

I don't think that would be interesting...On top of that, being able to find the "trick" or for example having a very long story that you end up modelling as Graph for example is a skill in itself.

Most direct problems are just too easy ( the simplicity gives it away), or just too hard that the author thinks " it's not worth complicating that with a complex story", so direct problems wouldn't be fun for most people. You will either get it in <10 mins, or you won't solve it in a contest.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

    That's actually very rare. In 95% of cases you know right away what the "pure" problem formulation is... how many times have you seen something like "There are N cities in Berland connected by M bidirectional roads". You don't even finish reading the sentence and know it's a graph problem; there's no skill in that.

    In some cases there is a "trick", as you call it, but this is different from adding a story. For example, see problem 571C. Here the trick is to interpret the ORs in brackets as vertices and make edges between those that share a variable. The graph is hidden because of a completely different formulation, not because we gave a different name to vertices.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

I think the story is a part of the problem. Somehow, it prepares you to interpreting real problems. In the most problems of reality, the real question is implicit and you need to identify what really matters and to model it computationally.

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