Hey Codeforces,

Don’t miss tomorrow’s SIT STAR Contest 2021, organized by the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT) in Switzerland to promote interest in Computer Science and Software Engineering.

The online coding contest will be happening tomorrow on February 10, from 8:00 to 12:00 am UTC.

During the event, you will face 12 or 13 algorithmic programming challenges of increasing difficulty (Div 4, Div 3, Div 2). The contest is open to all, and you can sign up for free here.

Why participate?

Apart from being a fun coding experience, SIT STAR Contest 2021 is the easiest way to enroll in a fully-funded master’s program in Computer Science and Software Engineering at SIT. The prizes at stake range from small souvenirs from Switzerland to tuition waivers for master’s students to full scholarships the cover both tuition and living expenses.

Note that you must hold a bachelor’s degree or be in the final year of your studies to join SIT in September 2021.

Don’t miss your chance to continue your studies at SIT!

More about SIT

Schaffhausen Institute of Technology is founded by entrepreneurs, led by scientists, and advanced by world-class researchers. Based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, SIT drives knowledge through science across many projects. In particular, SIT Master’s offers a blended degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering that you can attend in person, online, or as a mix of both.

Dear friends,

I am honoured to present you "Adolescent Grigore Moisil" (AGM) International Programming Contest (7th edition).

AGM is addressed to high school students who can form teams of up to 3 members, ICPC style. The contest has a qualification round on 20th February. The problems are set up fully by university students, medalists in national and international competitions (IOI, BOI, CEOI, etc.).

We are looking forward to international participants, especially those who want to participate in the final round (which is set to be in Bucharest, Romania, this summer, but there are chances to be held also online due to the pandemic situation; we will come with further details). You can register here until 19th February at 17:00 GMT.

Finally, I am more than delighted to present you our team: patrick.sava (the heart of the project), geniucos, LucaSeri, munteanuvlad98, Stelutzu, Alex18mai, teoionescu, bogdan10bos, carabet.cosmin, Stefan_Radu, Mihai22e, Mihneac, vreaudelftpls, eman98, GinguIonut, caesar2001, Usu and me.

Take a look at our problem-sets from the last edition:

Qualification

Final Round Day1

Final Round Day2

Our website

AGM Facebook

Also, don't hesitate to contact us: contact@agm-contest.com

Thank you very much,

George

Hello, Codeforces!

I'm very glad to invite you to my contest Codeforces Round #700 (Div. 1) and Codeforces Round #700 (Div. 2), which will be held on Feb/07/2021 17:35 (Moscow time). In both divisions, you will be given 6 problems and 2 hours 15 minutes to solve them. One of these problems is interactive, please see the guide of interactive problems if you are not familiar with it.

I would like to thank:

• antontrygubO_o for rejecting problems his amazing coordination and discussion.

• zjq2863974342 for all his rejected problems becoming the protagonist "Homer" in our problems in honor of his contribution.

• lavender730 for all her rejected problems sharing problem ideas and selecting the date of this round.

• choutii for discussion and being the first tester of this round (even before the testing phase).

• 300iq, _cherry_, demon12321, dorijanlendvaj, gamegame, growup974, Heltion, HIS_GRACE, Invincible06, jiangshibiao, JOHNKRAM, littlefriend, lucifer1004, lyuankai, Milesian, mohammedehab2002, moreD, p_b_p_b and rkm62 for testing and their invaluable feedback.

• MikeMirzayanov for the great Codeforces and Polygon!

I have tried my best to write clear problem statements and make strong pretests. I hope you like the problems and enjoy the round.

The anti-traditional score distribution (yes, very early, that's why we call it anti-traditional; I love early score distributions!) is given as follows:

• Div. 1: $$$500 - (750 + 750) - 1500 - 2250 - 4000$$$

• Div. 2: $$$500 - 1000 - 1500 - (1500 + 1500) - 3000$$$

UPD: Editorial is out.

UPD1: We are sorry for the issue with the problem D2B and for D2C=D1A turning out to be well-known. Constraints for D2B were changed from $$$10^9$$$ to $$$10^6$$$ and all submissions which didn't get AC during the contest were rejudged.

We apologize once again and thank you for your participation.

UPD2 Congratulations to the winners:

Div 1:

1. Petr

2. A.K.E.E.

3. ko_osaga

4. Isonan

5. Benq

Also congratulations to hos.lyric (the only contestant who solved E during contest time!)

Div 2:

1. 5002ryx

2. AlanChen

3. whx1003

4. zkou

5. Ritos__

Hi fellow Coders!

Shanks, Salem_Alwarawreh and I are glad to invite you to take part in Codeforces Round #699 (Div. 2), which will take place on Feb/05/2021 17:35 (Moscow time). Round will be rated for participants with rating less than 2100. Participants from the first division are also welcomed to take part out of competition.

You will be given 2 hours to solve 6 problems, each problem has a picture and a story above it. The stories are skippable if you want to focus on the real problems.

We would also like to thank:

• adedalic for the coordination and discussion of this round!
• Motarack, namanbansal013, Jellyman102, stack_overflows, Manik, morzer and _HossamYehia_ for phase one testing and valuable feedback.
• kclee2172, awoo, Karavaiev, I_Love_YrNameCouldBeHere, low_, rkm62, HIS_GRACE and nvmdava for phase two testing and incredible feedback.
• My friend Khaled for drawing pictures for all the problems to make them more colorful.
• Last but not least MikeMirzayanov for great Codeforces and Polygon!

Score distribution will be announced before the start of the round, hopefully.

We hope you like the problems and enjoy solving them!

UPD: Scoring is 500 — 750 — 1500 — 2000 — 2500 — 3000

UPD: Editorial

UPD: Congratulations to the winners

Div1 :

1. dreamoon_love_AA

2. neal

3. Heltion

4. hank55663

5. kotatsugame

Div2 :

1. Quirrel

2. -ohweonfire

3. tuagoale

4. buihoatpt2k3bc

5. njwrz

Thank you all for participating!

Dear Codeforces,

Today, Schaffhausen Institute of Technology in Switzerland is opening SIT STAR Contest to promote interest in Computer Science and Software Engineering. The final round is scheduled for February 10, but you can already sign up and practice for the big day. In this contest, you get to solve up to 12 challenges in algorithmic programming in just 4 hours and a chance to study at SIT with a full scholarship!

When?

1. February 1-7, 2021 | Practice Round You can already try the testing environment. Although not obligatory, this step will help you feel more confident during the actual contest. The results of this practice round won’t affect your final score.
2. February 10, 2021 | SIT STAR Contest Join the final round on February 10 at 8 am UTC. You will have 4 hours to complete the tasks.
3. June — July 2021 | Interviews and Winners Announcement The participants with the highest scores will be invited for an interview with the Professors from SIT. Based on the results of the interview, you may be offered a full scholarship for MSc in Computer Science and Software Engineering at SIT.

In SIT STAR Contest, you can:

• solve mind-blowing algorithmic problems efficiently and fast
• get noticed by top-level science and tech leaders from SIT
• win surprise gifts from Switzerland
• compete for SIT STAR Scholarship

We offer several full scholarships and several tuition waivers for MSc in Computer Science and Software Engineering. To learn more about the program, click here.

SIT STAR Contest is open to everybody. Everybody can participate in the contest for free.

However, if you are competing for the SIT STAR Scholarship prize, you should:

• Have a bachelor's degree in Computer Science or any other STEM field, or be in the final year of your studies.
• Speak English at a level sufficient to pursue graduate studies.

Meet SIT

Schaffhausen Institute of Technology is founded by entrepreneurs, led by scientists, and advanced by world-class researchers. Based on a blended education model, SIT brings knowledge through science and shapes next-gen digital leaders. To learn more, head to http://sit.org.

Good luck!

Hello Codeforces!

On Jan/29/2021 17:35 (Moscow time) Educational Codeforces Round 103 (Rated for Div. 2) will start.

Series of Educational Rounds continue being held as Harbour.Space University initiative! You can read the details about the cooperation between Harbour.Space University and Codeforces in the blog post.

This round will be rated for the participants with rating lower than 2100. It will be held on extended ICPC rules. The penalty for each incorrect submission until the submission with a full solution is 10 minutes. After the end of the contest you will have 12 hours to hack any solution you want. You will have access to copy any solution and test it locally.

You will be given 6 or 7 problems and 2 hours to solve them.

The problems were invented and prepared by Roman Roms Glazov, Adilbek adedalic Dalabaev, Vladimir vovuh Petrov, Ivan BledDest Androsov, Maksim Neon Mescheryakov and me. Also huge thanks to Mike MikeMirzayanov Mirzayanov for great systems Polygon and Codeforces.

Good luck to all the participants!

Congratulations to the winners:

Congratulations to the best hackers:

And finally people who were the first to solve each problem:

UPD: Editorial is out

Hello Codeforces!

It's been a long time since I posted a lesson in EDU section. Sorry about that, was quite busy managing my course on Youtube.

New lesson is about two pointers method.

What topics you want to learn next? I would prefer topics not covered in my Youtube course, something more specific for competetive programming. Any ideas?

More about EDU section you can read in this post.

Thanks to Stepavly and Supermagzzz for their help with lecture notes and testing problems.

Enjoy the lesson and good luck on the contests!

Good morning/afternoon/evening, Codeforcers!

We (Nezzar, triple__a, Nanako) are very excited to present to you Codeforces Round #698 (Div. 1) and Codeforces Round #698 (Div. 2), which will take place in 28.01.2021 17:35 (Московское время).

There will be 6 tasks waiting for you to be solved in 135 minutes!

We would also want to thank:

• isaf27 for the coordination and discussion of this round!

• KAN for great help and advice of round prepartion!

• alex20030190, KAN, Roundgod, gisp_zjz, sshwyR, xryjr233, jhdonghj112, low_, dragon_bra, gamegame, mmello, cycl, Reiva5, kzyKT, hitonanode, parker0523, baohiep for testing and providing valuable feedback of the problems!

• MikeMirzayanov for great systems Codeforces and Polygon!

Score distribution will be announced at $$$n$$$ $$$(0 \leq n < + \infty)$$$ minutes before round starts.

We hope you high performance with a lot of points earned during contest!

UPD1 $$$n$$$ is chosen to be $$$300$$$.

Score distribution is

Div. 2: 500-1000-1500-1500-2000-2500

Div. 1: 500-1000-1500-2250-2750-4000

UPD2 The contest is ended despite CodeForces under attack from DDoS midway. Thanks all for joining!

Here is the editorial: Editorial

UPD3

Congratulations to the winners!

Div 1:

1. maroonrk
2. panole
3. tourist
4. Miracle03
5. boboniu (The only contestant who solved F during contest time!)

div 2:

1. bahu
2. yplane
3. islingr
4. chen__zexing
5. ChuTian

People who were first to solve each task:

D2A: pj423

D2B: Zeyush

D2C: BelieveInYou

D2D/D1A: IgorI

D2E/D1B: SSRS_

D2F/D1C: Benq

D1D: Um_nik

D1E: tourist

D1F: boboniu

Hello, Codeforces! Were you afraid of the lack of contests? We also!

Unfortunately, due to technical problems, the round is declared unrated. You can continue to solve problems, but the results of the current round will not affect your rating. We are sorry for this situation.

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Hello! Codeforces Round #697 (Div. 3) will start at Jan/25/2021 18:00 (Moscow time). You will be offered 7 problems with expected difficulties to compose an interesting competition for participants with ratings up to 1600. However, all of you who wish to take part and have a rating 1600 or higher, can register for the round unofficially. The round will be hosted by rules of educational rounds (extended ICPC). Thus, during the round, solutions will be judged on preliminary tests, and after the round it will be a 12-hour phase of open hacks. I tried to make strong tests — just like you will be upset if many solutions fail after the contest is over.

You will be given 7 problems and 2 hours to solve them.

Note that the penalty for the wrong submission in this round (and the following Div. 3 rounds) is 10 minutes.

Remember that only the trusted participants of the third division will be included in the official standings table. As it is written by link, this is a compulsory measure for combating unsporting behavior. To qualify as trusted participants of the third division, you must:

• take part in at least two rated rounds (and solve at least one problem in each of them),
• do not have a point of 1900 or higher in the rating.

Regardless of whether you are a trusted participant of the third division or not, if your rating is less than 1600, then the round will be rated for you.

The problems for this round were invented by MikeMirzayanov and prepared by me Supermagzzz and Stepavly

Thanks to MikeMirzayanov for platforms and coordination of our work. Thanks to darkkcyan, Tzak, bfs.07, songsinger, iankury, spookywooky, Programmer, sodafago, infinitepro for help in round preparation and testing the round.

Good luck!

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UPD: Editorial is ready!