What happened - Codeforces

#	User	Rating
1	Benq	3857
2	jiangly	3810
3	maroonrk	3534
4	tourist	3528
5	Kevin114514	3510
6	turmax	3411
7	Um_nik	3387
8	Radewoosh	3367
9	heuristica	3322
10	strapple	3317

#	User	Contrib.
1	Qingyu	158
2	maspy	150
3	Um_nik	146
4	Errichto	139
5	adamant	136
6	maroonrk	134
7	DNR	133
8	Dominater069	131
9	Proof_by_QED	130
9	AmShZ	130

I will show 3 images, about the contest quality on codeforces. Firstly I must emphasise, none of this has to do with perf, many rounds i performed well (well for me) and the contest was just boring in 2026, just problem quality and how it felt to do the round.

The circled contests are contests I felt are good, and the more red the circle is, the more I like it. In fact some of the contests in mid-late 2025 were some of the most fun I've ever had in codeforces, these contests genuinely make me feel nostolgia, and having feelings over cp problems might be a bit crazy, but they were genuinely just so fun to do even when I performed bad, I don't even have words to explain it. I feel there has been a big drop in problem quality in 2026. Im aware that problemsetting is no easy task, in fact i have some experience myself and yes it takes a lot of effort and time to make a good round, but so many good rounds into so many boring rounds is unlikely variance, there is likely some other trend I would like to discover. If anyone feels they have an idea behind this trend, please leave a comment.

Secondly, note this doesn't go beyond D in most contests, sometimes including E for specific contests, and this evaluation does not exist for contests I haven't looked at obviously, so don't go saying "but round 10XX" was really good, when I haven't done 10XX. For example, someone said 1092 is a good contest, but I havent done it.

Mid 2025:

Late 2025:

Early 2026 (up until now):

As you can see, the contests in 2025 felt way better, and at times there were 5 contests in a row which had very enjoyable experience. What happened? I know there's still good problems out there, but it feels more few and far between these days, I don't get the same thrill I did back then.

To close out, I want to say two things. Firstly, no I'm not salty about this, I just want to know what happened to cause a general drop in quality. Secondly I want to raise awareness to the current round setters, again I know how hard it is to set, but if we as a community we figure out what went wrong, we can find a way to fix it and bring back the days of enjoyable contests every day. This benefits not just me, but many people both new and old in the community.