Hey Guys,
This is really a concern, specially for beginners like me…after finally understandin a slightly confusin question…and coding what I believe is logically and syntactically correct(also gettin the expected output in the sample of the given problem).
But gettin a WA(wrong Answer) after submitting, just makes us dumbfounded and with no feedbacks and the protocols of CodeChef (for on goin challenges) there is nothing left to do and we end up wastin our time(coz we cant get help from experienced Coders).
So I request you to show your support(in any way comment,answer,upvote…so that admin can make it happen) if u agree and face the same problem, please do vote.
And for the contrary please guide us on what to do (i believe that gettin WA must be due to edge cases, for most parts)better still helps us.
Answer/comments in “yes” or “no”(and kindly guide us after that ).
Thanks!
Just a plain feedback of which input the code didnt satisfy would suffice.
There should be feedback for WA's
Yes. Some feedback will surely help.
There should be feedback for WA's **on live Contests/Challenges.**
No. These contests are to test your skill. Finding edge cases, debugging are also a part of that. You need to develop all this by practicing hard. If you are having problem in finding corner cases, give a proper planned practice on that. Feedback on practice section is good.
There should be feedback for WA's on live Contests/Challenges. **(Atleast for coders upto 3-4 stars)**
Again, same as above. If you are 3-4 star and are facing problem, then practice. Getting special privilege of feedback is a big unfair advantage over other and will disturb leaderboard. Its strictly based on merit, and its better that way.
And for the contrary please guide us on what to do (i believe that gettin WA must be due to edge cases, for most parts)better still helps us.
You can always seek guidance at discuss for problems you are stuck at, thats what discuss if for! It compensates codechef not revealing test cases.
we end up wastin our time(coz we cant get help from experienced Coders).
Treat online contests as an open book exam. You can refer stuff, you can check out algos, websites etc. But making someone else do stuff for you is STILL wrong.
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There’s always time to upsolve a problem after the contest. You can always seek help in the discussions after the contest.
I agree with the core idea that beginners need guidance. It’s very hard to learn any subject on your own, and this certainly includes programming, debugging, and algorithm design. Sharing knowledge, advice, ideas, greatly helps people develop their skills.
This works for practice. The word “competition” means something different. Once you’re taking part in a contest, you’re on your own. No one is going to carry you towards the goal during a running marathon and you can’t bring your personal trainer to the Olympics to help you lift weights in order to get a gold medal. Do that, and all rankings become meaningless, because it’s no longer individuals competing; it’s practically teams, and of variable sizes too. Nobody wants to see that.
Debugging is an inseparable part of programming. Programming competitions will test your individual strength at it, whether you like it or not. Practice it, get better at it, ask others for advice, do it yourself during the contest. And when you couldn’t do it yourself, wait for the contest to end, ask others what was wrong, and learn from your mistakes to fare better next time.
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I think it would be very problematic to limit any kind of feedback to the rating of a user as it would encourage people to cheat by creating a second account for checking. And at the same time, some highly skilled people are 0-4 stars because they are new to codechef (but not to CP). I think a better idea would be to limit feedback to easy questions. If you are struggling to get AC on TWOCOINS, MULDIG or EXPTREE, you should really figure it out by yourself and design appropriate testcases yourself or figure out how to bruteforce solutions to set of random testcases, etc.
But if you having problems with NITIKA, CHEFSIGN or CALC, I think it would be nice to provide some hints. Instead of providing individual hints, it might be better to provide extra hints to everyone who tried hard to solve a easy questions but was only getting WAs. An extra example testcase could be unlocked (with or without answers) or hints such as “Did you consider that the output might be bigger than 2^31-1?” could be given. This would be a little bit of extra work for the providers of easy questions but would help people to learn.
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