Problem statements should be given as stories

Revision en1, by geminos, 2026-08-24 13:54:42

Take 2252B/D, 2253C/F, and 2254D/E/F/G as examples. Like some other problem statements out there, they're basically:

"There's an array a of n integers, there's an operation that you can do under some conditions/that transform a into array b, find whether such operation is possible/maximum no. of operations possible/something from b/a given b/etc." "There's an integer/array, it's called 'x' if it follows certain conditions, find number of x's in a certain range/minimum number of some operations to make it x/etc."

Like, I know it takes some effort, but at least write a story. Take a look at 2257B. It's way more interesting (and more fun to try to solve). Heck, even such a classic problem everyone knows like 4A "Watermelon" has a story of Pete and Billy buying a watermelon, instead of just "you are given an integer w, find whether it is possible to find integers a and b such that both a and b are even and a + b = w."

Making problem statements stories also makes solvers learn how to 'figure out the actual problem'. When you see "Joseph bought 400 cookies at the cost of $2 each, he wants 10% profit, find the price of each cookie he has to set", you'll figure out that it's basically "400 * $x = 110% of (400 * $2), find x". Some CF statements nowadays skip right to the figured out part, and what's left is just finding the tricky solution. You won't find this kind of problems in reality, or at least in ICPC/OIs. It's not fun nor helpful.

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en1 English geminos 2026-08-24 13:54:42 1508 Initial revision (published)