With the increasing amount of users being participating in Codechef contests and the problems the site is going through, here I some changes which I would like to suggest-
1)First of all, There has been a lot on discussion these days about the uploading of video tutorials for the problems. I think it is not a feasible step. We can’t even argue about the credibility of such video tutorials. The editorialists for the problems are much more experienced and can tell the solution more beautifully. I very well understand the problem many of you are facing while understanding the editorials, (I also face the same problem), so I have found some other feasible solution for it. Instead of asking just one person to write the Editorials, Codechef can ask 5 different persons to write the Editorials for the problem and then select the best 3 of them and post them. Also to make the tutorial more interesting, solution and approach should be explained subtask wise, as it is seen in the Editorial for Lunch-Time problems. This is help new users to atleast solve the problem partially and later when they learn the required data structures and algorithms, they solve it fully. Also, some link to 1-2 previous questions based on similar concept can be added in the Editorials. I think it is much more feasible than uploading video tutorials on youtube or on this site.
2)Also, more short contests, example 2 Cook-offs should be organised as they are more useful. Most of the contests like ACM-ICPC etc are short contest. Long contest rarely happen anywhere, that to with maximum stretch of 2 days. Organising more short contests, as Codeforces organises 5 short contests per month, topcoder also organises many more short contests as well, will help not increase the popularity of Codechef more, but also help users prepare much more for real-world contests. These 2 Cook-offs could be broken up into Division 1 and Division 2 as well if possible. This will help motivate the new users to atleast gain confidence by solving more problems in easier contest and try harder for tougher one.
3)The total time for long challenge should be reduced from 10 days to 7 days. Actually, many of the users solve most of the questions on one to two days only and rarely you see them submitting solutions to other problems later. Reducing the time to 7 days will give Codechef more time to organise the other Cook- off as well.
4)The previous (just about 1 year old) Cook-off’s should be made as virtual contests, which means users have to solve the problems in the same format with the time limit, but this will not affect the ratings. They can have a look at their performance by looking up the rankings table for that Cook-off. This idea has already been implemented on Codeforces and some other sites. This encourages the users to get more exposure to real time contests and develop speed and accuracy for solving problems.
5)Also, there has been increased discussions about solving problems related to particular topic. I think this is not useful. What Codechef can do is classify the 5 easiest problems on each topic and put them in Beginner section and leave the rest of the problems in Easy, medium and hard level as it is. This will be more useful. If we solve problems topic wise, it will not be much useful. To get started about 5 problems with bit increasing difficulty on that topic is enough. Then we should solve questions randomly. If we solve questions topic wise, we may become expert in that topic and solve almost all questions related to that topic. But in the contest, the first real challenge is to identify the problem and the method to solve it. many a times we are are expert in the method problem asks for but we can not able to identify it. We later regret for our silly mistake or whatever. Only when we solve questions randomly, we open up or mind more and start identifying the problems more quickly.
I think the above steps will make problem solving more interesting and beneficial. This will also help to reduce the fear of Competitive coding among the new users.
Please vote this question so that the message reaches the Codechef admin as soon as possible and they can take the required steps.
