Long Challenges is a really well thought method for us to brain-storm the problem from every angle and learning to implement new algorithms. When we spend around 10 days, thinking on a problem, getting it almost correct but 1 or 2 testcases making your answer wrong. Wouldn’t it be better if, just for these long challenges, you can provide a seperate document of all the test cases you made to judge our answer. It will really help us self analyse our code.
1 Like
yes after the long challenge it can be done , but there is a negative side to it , its better to think by yourself the test cases where you are failing , then only you will be more sharp.
yes it can be done but i donot think in cases where you have 100 of test cases and constraints like 10^5 it will be helpful to you.
codeforces does it well by having no test cases , but both are different sites , and codechef provides you with better editorials compared to other sites, you can get from the editorials what actually you are missing.
Yup. I also agree with you.
Codeforces, Hackerearth also have there test cases visible after the contest. This can help us figure out the corner cases on which we are stuck for days. For atleast long challenges this can be done if not for other contest or practice problems.
Though CodeChef admin has already answered this question, but still this is a debatable topic.
How much the test cases can help, really depends.
Usually codechef tests you on worst cases, so if you are failing on a larger subtask, its probable that the data in test case is too big to be used to debug.
For smaller cases, i agree, it can help you figure out the bug. Most of the times, its misinterpretation of problem which troubles the programmer worst, and thats a genuine reason to ask for test case. Aside from that, codechef expects you to learn debugging, and its right upto an extent. Because in real life you have to make your own “test cases” on where your program works and where it gets bugged. Its a discussion which helps me more than seeing the test cases.
Actually I agree with @raj79 . It takes a lot of effort to get the corner cases, but that’s also a skill we must develop ! After all, in competitions like ICPC, we’re not given the test cases where we go wrong.