Happy Children's Day everyone. What should you do to celebrate the special holiday?

Of course, another Codeforces Round is your best choice!

There is a child who is our friend. Now he has faced a lot of algorithm problem, could you please help him?

We invite you to participate in Codeforces Round #250, which will take place at 17:00 MSK on 6.1 — Children's Day. This round will be held in both divisions.

Note that the starting time of this round is quite unusual.Why? Because it's yet another CF Round held by Chinese! We prepared many interesting problems for you.

Are you getting excited? Don't miss this round!

The problems were prepared by delayyy, Picks and me. This is our first Codeforces round~~~~.

Many thanks to Gerald, who gave us enormous help during the preparations for this round; to ftiasch, Kissshot and jqdai0815, who are the testers of this round; and to MikeMirzayanov, who created such a wonderful platform.

In Div. 1, scores for each problem will be 500-1000-1500-2000-3000.

In Div. 2, scores for each problem will be 500-1500-1500-2000-2500.

Look! Your high rating is waiting for you! What are you waiting for?

Just participate in this contest and write code fast and nicely, and you will take the high rating home!

Good luck and have fun!

UPD: The contest is over! Congratulations to winners!

Top 5 of Div. 1:

1. Alex_2oo8

2. Petr

3. Dmitry_Egorov

4. TankEngineer

5. al13n

Top 5 of Div. 2:

1. tohdon

2. KFDong

3. function348

4. 104325EA

5. Boyuede1

Unfortunately, no one has solved the problem E in both divisions. What a sad story....

Editorial for the round will be added soon.

UPD2: Editorial for the round can be found here: Editorial

Hi all)

Tomorrow at usual time will be held regular Codeforces round #249 for Div.2 participants. Traditionally we invite Div.1 participants to take part out of the competition.

The problems were again prepared by authors Pavel Kholkin (HolkinPV) and Gerald Agapov (Gerald). As always, we express our gratitude to Michael Mirzayanov (MikeMirzayanov) for perfect Codeforces and Polygon systems and Mary Belova (Delinur) for translating the problems.

UPD: Score distribution will be standard — 500-1000-1500-2000-2500.

We wish all participants good luck, high rating and enjoyment of solving problems)

UPD2: the contest is over, we hope you enjoy it)

UPD3: link to editorial is already here)

UPD4: Congratulations to winners!:

1) JiangZemin_JiangHaha
2) Rafbill
3) Yukinoshita_Yukino
4) kuangbin9
5) spartacus

We’d like to invite you to take part in the qualification round of the Yandex.Algorithm competition that will start on May 25, 2014, at midnight. You need to start your qualification within 24 hours from the beginning of the qualification round. Qualification will last 100 minutes.

To advance to the next stage of Yandex.Algorithm you will need to solve at least one problem during your qualification.

Participants, already advanced to the elimination stage from warm-up round, are also welcome on the qualification.

Good luck!

Hello everybody!

We invite you to participate in Codeforces Round #248, which will take place at 11:00AM MSK on Saturday, May 24th. This round will be held in both divisions. Note that the starting time of this round is quite unusual.

The problems were prepared by zhonghaoxi, wyx528 and me. This is our first Codeforces round and we hope it will be a good one.

Many thanks to Gerald, who gave us enormous help during the preparations for this round; to colin and MSTyoda, who are the testers of this round; and to MikeMirzayanov, who created such a wonderful platform.

In Div. 1, scores for each problem will be 500-1000-1500-2000-3000. In Div. 2, scores for each problem will be 500-1500-1500-2000-2500.

Hope you enjoy the problems! Good luck and have fun~

UPD: Contest has finished! Editorial for the round can be found here: Editorial

UPD2: System test has finished! Congratulations to the following winners!

Top 5 of Div. 1:

1. YuukaKazami
2. KADR
3. RAVEman
4. Seyaua
5. ikatanic

Top 5 of Div. 2:

1. jason_yu
2. Kann
3. tomsyp
4. keavil
5. Kazakh_Alga

YuukaKazami is the only contestant to solve problem D! Sadly no one solved problem E during the contest.

UPD3: Statistics of the round by DmitriyH is here: Statistics

Hi everybody!

Codeforces round #247 for Div. 2 participants will take place on May 21 at 19:30 MSK. Traditionally, Div. 1 participants can take part out of the competition.

Problems have been prepared by me(Antoniuk) and Kirill Schetinin(KaiZeR). This is the first round prepared by us and we hope that you will enjoy the round.

We want to thank Gerald and Delinur for helping to prepare the round and MikeMirzayanov for Codeforces and Polygon.

UPD: Score distribution will be the next — 500-1500-1500-2000-2500.

UPD2: The contest is over, we hope you enjoy it)

UPD3: Editorial.

UPD4: Statistics.

Congratulations to winners!

1) hzjsxxy
2) azariamuh
3) tonkosi
4) inutard
5) c.u.c.u.m.b.e.r

Gl & hf)

The warm-up round for Yandex's annual international open championship in competitive programming, Yandex.Algorithm, starts tomorrow, May 16, 2014.

Yandex’s annual programming championship, Yandex.Algorithm, with original rules, international participants and monetary prizes is open to anybody who wishes to participate, regardless of their education, profession or programming style.

You can register for participation and compete for a top prize of about $9,000, with runner up prizes totalling to about $4,500 for second and about $3,000 for third places respectively. Yandex.Algorithm 2014 will consist of six rounds, including a warm-up round on May 16, a qualification round on May 25, three elimination rounds, which will run from June 1 to June 15, and a final round on August 1.

The registration deadline for Yandex.Algorithm 2014 is May 26.

Join Yandex.Algorithm 2014 to try yourself against real-life algorithmic problems, meet new friends and discover new possibilities.

PS: you need to have a full Yandex account to register. To convert your account use the link below

https://passport.yandex.ru/passport?mode=light2full

Good day, codeforces)

Welcome to regular Codeforces round #246 for Div.2 participants. As always Div.1 participants can take part out of the competition.

The problems were prepared by authors Pavel Kholkin (HolkinPV) and Gerald Agapov (Gerald). Is not the first and definitely not the last time when we tried our best for you. Traditionally thanks to Michael Mirzayanov (MikeMirzayanov) for perfect Codeforces and Polygon systems and Mary Belova (Delinur) for translating the problems.

UPD: Score distribution will be standard — 500-1000-1500-2000-2500.

UPD2: The contest is over, we hope you enjoy it)

UPD3: the editorial is here

Congratulations to winners!:

1) PopovkinAndrey
2) FTD2009
3) Gulan14no
4) Kozakai_Aya
5) Mikael

We wish all participants good luck and enjoyment of solving problems)

After a short delay (but Oscar is given in spring too, huh?) we are pleased to announce the Cormen Medal laureates for 2013. This year, we’ve decided to slightly upgrade nominations again, so this year's Cormen Medal is given in two nominations:

• Best Progress
• Best Problemsetter

Best Progress

The Cormen Medal laureate in this nomination is Scott Wu (scott_wu, USA). Note the sharp upward dive his rating line takes. His achievements in 2013 are not limited by the spectacular dive into the best 10 participants on Codeforces: he got the 5-th place on IOI, won the 2013 season of the USACO contests, got target on TopCoder! We congratulate Scott and wish him many more achievements!

Best Problemsetter

We didn't have to search far and wide for the winner in this nomination. Naturally, the Cormen Medal goes to the most productive and loved by many author of 2013, Sergey Nagin (Sereja, Ukraine). Sergey prepared and conducted 7 rounds (all of them Div1+Div2) on Codeforces. Sergey's problems gained popularity among the Codeforces coders and we will be happy to see his contests again in the future! Sergey has already been awarded by a Medal and an Award Plate in February in Kharkov training camp.

Looks like it's becoming a good tradition. The laureates will be sent a book by Thomas Cormen (Introduction to Algorithms or Algorithms Unlocked), signed by the author.

History

Let us remind you that the Cormen medals have been awarded for the fourth year. tourist (Gennady Korotkievich) became the best participant three years in a row (in all the years when this nomination existed). Alex_KPR (Alexander Kouprin) became the best blogger in both years when this nomination existed. My favourite nomination "Best Problemsetter" was awarded to: natalia (Natalia Bondarenko) in 2010, Ripatti (Artyom Ripatti) in 2011, and witua (Vitaly Gerasimov) in 2012. Besides, in 2012 there was a medal for "Codeforces Spirit of Community 2012", the laureate was Nickolas (Mariia Mykhailova).