First of all, Codeforces is great and I like its UI much better than other platforms. But there is one issue that annoys me repeatedly. I haven't seen it discussed in a blog yet (apologies if I missed it), so I thought I'd make this request.
Sometimes I revisit a problem I solved before, and I want to see my submission. Then I get confused because I don't see my submission in the lower right corner of the problem page. Eventually, I find that I need to view a different link that shows the same problem.
Now, it makes some sense that the same problem should have different links. For example, if I'm viewing the problem in a virtual contest, I want to see the correct short-name depending on the division. If the problem is div2C, I want to see C if I got there from div2, or A if from div1. Another example is that if a problem came from the contest, I don't want to see tags, but I might if I got there from the problemset.
So, a problem can have multiple links. For example, all these 6 links go to the same problem:
- https://codeforces.me/problemset/problem/1482/E
- https://codeforces.me/problemset/problem/1483/C
- https://codeforces.me/problemset/problem/1484/E
- https://codeforces.me/contest/1482/problem/E
- https://codeforces.me/contest/1483/problem/C
- https://codeforces.me/contest/1484/problem/E
Yet, I can only see a submission I made on two of them. On top of these, there's the gym section where people can create even more links to the same problem.
I hope what I'm requesting isn't too hard to implement, since all different links to the same problem ultimately point back to the same Polygon problem ID. Specifically, it would be really cool if:
- When viewing a problem, I can see the submissions I've made to it regardless of what link I used.
- When viewing a problem, I can easily navigate to the other links that are the same problem.
- When I submit a problem from the contest page as an author/coordinator, it will shine a green light on the problemset page that induces a well-earned dopamine hit. (Currently it seems to only work if I submit it from the problemset page, not the contest page).
Is there a good reason why one wouldn't want to view the past submissions or mark a problem with green for all versions? Should gym links be treated differently than the "official" links? Is this more challenging to implement than I estimated? Will I ever pass MikeMirzayanov in contribution? Is it rated? Please leave your opinion in the comments below.
I think there is a small problem with this. When creating a gym contest or a mashup, there is an opportunity to change sample tests. Then it will be kinda weird that your submission will be showing as a correct solution for this problem even though it may even not pass this sample test.
Another problem is for example this kind of situation. Someone solved a problem "find the number of regular bracket sequences of size n" and then their teacher wants to give them a problem "find the number of n-gon (where n is definitely bigger than 1 btw) triangulations". And they could just want to change the statement in the gym. But they definitely don't want their students to see that they already solved this problem (I'm not sure, maybe even now it will show it solved, then it's sad).
So yeah, I think it should be treated differently in the gym. But besides that, it's a great idea.
I expected there might be some problems with gym I didn't consider. I would be happy if only the official links were more connected to each other.
When viewing a problem, I can easily navigate to the other links that are the same problem.
How does this help? Just solve it on one of these links and then your idea suits well.
If I'm viewing a problem in contest mode, I might decide I want to see tags and difficulty, so I must switch to the problemset link. Or I might want to see what other contest IDs the problem appeared in. You're right that if the first bullet point is implemented then there's not as much need for the second, but I think it would still be useful.
"green light on the problemset page that induces a well-earned dopamine hit"