Hi. I am new to codechef and I recently took part in my first rated contest which was the December long challenge. I solved 4 and half questions and my rank in the contest was 860, the rating given to me is 1592 where as another student from my college who has solved only two questions and have rank of 4566 in the same contest have a rating of 1526, how can our ratings be so close when there is a considerable difference in our ranks in the contest. Link to his profile - https://www.codechef.com/users/anwer_zaki
I have read on forums that if one of solutions fails the MOSS test then it affects my rating. How will I know if any solution has failed the moss test? I have not received any mail from codechef stating the same and it is not saying so anywhere in my profile too. Then why is my rating so low? I was expecting a rating in at least blue zone.
It’s an issue of the starting point.
As a newbie, you start at 1500 ranking. Your contest performance was quite above the performance of the other contestants with 1500 ranking therefore you were awarded 92 extra points, and now your new ranking is 1592.
Your college buddy has been in a few contests before. Before this contest his ranking was 1580. He did poorly as expected from this ranking, and his ranking was demoted by 54 points, that’s how he got 1526.
It’s less about the absolute difference in your current rankings but more about what was expected out of you, and whether you got awarded ranking points, or demoted.
There is a limit on the ranking award size. For a newbie, it’s 275 points. So the most you would be able to get on your first competition is 275. You got a third of the absolutely possible points.
There is also a limit on the amount of demotion that also depends on the number of previous competitions you participated.