Hello everyone,

I am writing this blog to suggest you to be careful when registering for a contest that is not rated for you.

This is what happened to my friend: my friend registered for two contests, both before they started. One is Div 2, which is rated for him. Another one is Div 3, which is not rated for him. The Div 2. round came before the Div 3. round.

What happened was that he took the Div 2 contest but his rating fell below 1400, which means the upcoming Div 3 will be rated for him. However, when he first registered for the Div 3 contest, it showed that it is unrated for him. Now, suddenly with his rating drop, the Div 3 contest became rated for him without him realizing.

My suggestion is that you should only register for one contest strictly after rating changes roll out for your previous round. This ensures that you know if a contest is truly rated or unrated for you.

I simply want to write this blog since we have Codeforces Round 786 (Div. 3) coming up right after Codeforces Round 785 (Div. 2) . Just want to make sure you don't have to go through what my friend went through.