gepardo's blog

Access to contest archives
By gepardo, history, 6 years ago, translation, In English

Hello, Codeforces!

If would be nice if all the materials of Codeforces contests were publicly available and there was possibility to download the archives. There may be some reasons for it:

  • It's easier to hold trainings. There can be different problems on trainings and it can be good to collect them in one contest on one testing system. If the tests are open, it can make holding trainings in this way highly easier.

  • More availability. If the site is down or gone offline for some time, contest materials may remain and there will be a possibility to test problems locally.

  • More safety for problems. Problem materials will be stored not only on Codeforces. If some problems will be lost on servers for some reason, it will be easier to restore them.

There can be a counterargument against opening the tests that not experienced users will download tests instead of finding bugs themselves. But 1) small tests are already open and 2) the access may be given only for users that have coach mode.

Such idea was proposed earlier, here is a blog post от MikeMirzayanov about this. But, as it appears, progress on this question has stopped.

It will be better if MikeMirzayanov opened the materials. I am waiting for his response to this blog post. But I want to open the materials of my contests without waiting for his decision:

Codeforces Round 379 (Div. 2) : link

Codeforces Round 404 (Div. 2) : link

Here is another blog post by Arpa, where you can find the materials of Codeforces Round 383 (Div. 1).

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

My personal opinion is that contest data should publicly available (with copyright, of course). But I think that you should respect MikeMirzayanov decision on the matter before share your contests data. Codeforces pay you for the problems, so the problems are Codeforces' property, not yours..

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +29 Vote: I do not like it

    I am not completely sure, but in this blog post it is explained that it's allowed to publish materials for Codeforces' problems. Question about can a contest author re-use Codeforces' problems is still open, and some other questions were asked but without answers. I think it's better to wait for MikeMirzayanov's decision, and if it turns out that I must not publish contest materials, I will delete them.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

↑↑UP↑↑

I apologize for trying to move this topic to the top of "Recent actions", but I want MikeMirzayanov to read this and to give his opinion on this topic.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

    I think it would be better to message him and ask for his opinion.
    You can share his thoughts on this post later.

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