Hello everyone!

AI Cup 2020 — the annual artificial intelligence programming championship by Mail.Ru Group is already running.

AI Cup — open artificial intelligence programming contest. Test yourself writing a game strategy! It’s simple, clear and fun!

This year's theme is — RTS. We are waiting for you on our site! The site is already open, you can start implementing your strategies.

Ninth AI Cup championship is named CodeCraft. You are to program an artificial intelligence to control a number of units, gather resources, build your settlement and attack your enemies. Your strategies will compete with each other in the Sandbox and the championship. Currently availiable programming languages: C++, C#, F#, D, Go, Java, Kotlin, Scala, Python, Rust. The Sandbox is already open. Good luck!

Schedule

• Sandbox: already open for everyone.
• Round 1: December 12-13.
• Round 2: December 19-20.
• Finals: December 26-28.

Prizes

In the past years, the winners have received prizes, like MacBooks, iPads, watches and hard drives. In addition, we presented 60 hoodies and 360 T-shirts.

Unfortunately, the participants of the previous AI Cup received T-shirts only almost a year later (we delivered the prizes). In a pandemic, we were powerless and not ready.

In this regard, we thought to cancel the merch in this competition, but a the community did not receive this news well. “No promo codes or other virtual prizes needed, we need T-shirts and hoodies” — quote from the community.

Change 1: the prizes are now not physical, but cash. This year's winners will receive:

• 1st place — 250,000 rubles (about $3364).
• 2nd place — 200,000 rubles (about $2691).
• 3rd place — 150,000 rubles (about $2018).
• 4th place — 125,000 rubles (about $1682).
• 5th place — 100,000 rubles (about $1345).
• 6th place — 75,000 rubles (about $1009).

Sandbox winners (also 6 people) will receive 10,000 rubles each (about $135). Amounts are after taxes. We have significantly increased the prize pool.

Change 2: T-shirts and hoodies will be available, but delivery will not be until February. If you don't want to wait, you can exchange your promotional gift for a promotional code in Mail.ru Group services (cloud, etc.).

All participants in Round 2 will receive T-shirts, and the finalists will receive hoodies.

Begin from the Quick start guide. Writing a simple strategy is not hard at all!

¡Buenos días! (That's Spanish for "what's up homies")

On Dec/06/2020 17:35 (Moscow time) we will host Codeforces Global Round 12.

It is the sixth round of a 2020 series of Codeforces Global Rounds. The rounds are open and rated for everybody.

The prizes for this round:

• 30 best participants get a t-shirt.
• 20 t-shirts are randomly distributed among those with ranks between 31 and 500, inclusive.

The prizes for the 6-round series in 2020:

• In each round top-100 participants get points according to the table.
• The final result for each participant is equal to the sum of points he gets in the four rounds he placed the highest.
• The best 20 participants over all series get sweatshirts and place certificates.

Thanks to XTX, which in 2020 supported the global rounds initiative!

The problems were written and prepared by smart Cuban Devil and stupid Americans fivefourthreeone and Monogon.

We would like to distribute our thanks equally to the following people who made this round possible.

• Ernestico, McDic, Ari, gamegame, namanbansal013, coderz189, balbit, dorijanlendvaj, Retired_cherry, saurabhyadavz, arvindr9, kclee2172, AliShahali1382, BRCode, ffao, Kuroni for testing the round and roasting providing valuable feedback to the problems. Testers orz!
• antontrygubO_o for inspiration!
• isaf27 for excellent coordination of the round, and improving several problems!
• MikeMirzayanov for the amazing Codeforces and Polygon platforms!
• You, for participating! Your participation will directly contribute to the end of the long-standing Cuban-American rivalry, and will lead to peace on Earth.

You will have 3 hours to solve 8 problems (and 2 subtasks). If you want to lose rating, then we encourage you not to read all the problems.

May rating be distributed from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

UPD: Here's the score distribution. Good luck, have fun!

UPD: Hope you enjoyed the problems! Editorial is posted.

UPD: System testing finished, congrats to the winners!

1. Benq
2. tourist
3. jiangly
4. IZONE
5. ecnerwala
6. Um_nik
7. ksun48
8. 244mhq
9. maroonrk
10. yosupo

As you probably know, most of the rounds on Codeforces are created by active community members. We are very grateful to our talented authors from all around the world for bringing their ideas to tens of thousands of competitors, providing fun and learning experience for contestants of every expertise, from beginners to the world's top programmers. This post will cover the steps you need to take propose a round and become a problem writer on Codeforces.

Who can be a problem author

Best problems usually come from the most experienced participants. We have limited resources for rounds reviewing, so to make the process flawless for writers, starting January 1st, 2021, the following requirements for problem authors will be applied:

• rating: 2100 or above, or
• was a writer in the past.

The restrictions may be updated in the future, the post will be updated accordingly. If your round is already in the review status, don't worry, it will be reviewed regardless of the current restrictions.

If you are an experienced writer/jury member in other competitions, please write any current coordinator (listed below) a private message about your wish to prepare a contest and describe your experience in this area.

How to propose a round

If you meet the requirements, you should have the link "propose a contest/problems" in the personal menu on the right sidebar. Click on the link and follow the instructions carefully. Prepare and submit your proposal for a contest and problems.

In some time you will have a coordinator(s) assigned to your contest proposal. They will review your problems and you will discuss the problems with them. Please be active, respond to coordinators' questions in time, make the proposed changes quickly. Codeforces coordinators are very experienced participants and reviewers. Please respect their opinion, and note that they have the highest priority in any decisions on the problems.

Our coordinators are: Aleks5d, errorgorn, irkstepanov, IgorI, Artyom123, 74TrAkToR, ScarletS, Akulyat, TheScrasse, 244mhq, satyam343, Vladithur, and KAN.

You can only propose a whole problemset for a Div 2 or Div 1 + Div 2 round. We don't consider single problems. Also, we don't consider proposals for Div 3/4 or Educational rounds.

How to prepare problems

Problems for Codeforces rounds are prepared in Polygon. It is not recommended to prepare problems before the coordinator's approval, especially if it's the first time you propose a contest.

For each problem you will need to write a clear statement (in English or Russian), code a validator (a program that checks tests' correctness), a checker if necessary (a program that checks output), and of course correct solution. Also, you will need to create tests to check the contestants' solutions on. Your coordinator will do the statement translation if necessary, check your work, and suggests what to change and add if needed.

Before you start working on problems, even if you have experience working with Polygon, you must read these rules. All the work with checkers, validators, interactors, and generators is done with testlib.h library, you can read the introduction by the link and download examples from Polygon. Whenever you have any troubles and/or difficulties, contact your coordinator for help. It is much faster to do something right from the first time, then to do it wrong and then redo it again.

Writers reward

It is interesting and challenging work to invent and prepare problems but is also time-consuming and demanding work. That's why we pay authors for preparing problems for Codeforces. The rewards are:

*If the reward can be paid in cryptocurrency, it might be increased by 25%.

**Sponsored rounds are selected by coordinators from available proposals.

Conclusions

We hope that with your help we will keep the regular stream of regular rounds full of fresh and interesting problems! If you have any questions on how to become a problem writer, ask in the comments. Please note that unrelated or outdated comments in this blog will be cleared once in a while to keep the blog and comments up-to-date.

오랜만이에요, 코드포스! (Long time no see, Codeforces!)

I'd like to welcome all of you to Codeforces Round 688 (Div. 2)! The contest will start at Dec/04/2020 16:05 (Moscow time), and it is rated for all participants with ratings under 2100. Note the semi-unusual start time.

You will be given 6 problems and 2 hours and 15 minutes to solve them. The score distribution will be announced soon.

All problems are prepared by me, with a lot of help from the testers making me realize that my solutions are dumb.

Thanks to Green55, JooDdae, cs71107, YeongTree, Savior-of-Cross, jh05013, blobugh, 39dll, InfiniteChallenge, Pentagon03, sonjaewon, slah007, jooncco, and kalki411 for testing the round, and especially xiaowuc1 for helping polish English statements as well. I would also like to thank 300iq for round coordination, and MikeMirzayanov for the great Codeforces and Polygon system.

See you in the round!

UPD: The scoring distribution is 500 — 1000 — 1500 — 2000 — 2500 — 3500.

UPD 2: The round is finished. Thanks for your participation! I'm sorry about underestimating the difficulty of problem B, but I hope you still enjoyed the problems! The editorial will be posted in a minute.

UPD 3: The editorial is out!

UPD 4: Congratulations to the winners!

Div. 2

1: caoyizhong

2: Depth_First_Search

3: Misaka23334

4: PleasePreyForMe

5: EzioAuditoreDaFirenze

Unofficial Div. 1

1: Geothermal

2: jiangly

3: neal

4: saketh

5: Pyqe

Hello Codeforces!

On Nov/30/2020 17:35 (Moscow time) Educational Codeforces Round 99 (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!

One of the most memorable Kotlin rounds of this year took place just recently. More than 6.7 thousand participants have registered for it. We thank everyone for your interest in Kotlin! Everyone who took part in this round will receive a link to download a personalized online certificate within the next two weeks. Work on this has already started.

Our warm congratulations to the winners of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, who receive cash prizes:

1. tourist
2. Benq
3. Geothermal

A Kotlin Heroes t-shirt and exclusive Kotlin stickers will be presented to:

And also these participants won branded T-shirts:

Finally, the last, but not least, gift for today: ICPC-experience, an invitation to the Moscow World Finals 2021, all-inclusive on-site (hotel, meals, ceremonies, and swag, are included; visa, flights, transportation to the contest location is not).

And a special recognition prize from the ICPC goes to tourist.

If you are still new to Kotlin you could look into a tutorial on competitive programming in Kotlin and watch these videos on competitive programming in Kotlin. Also, all the previous Kotlin Heroes Rounds are available for practice here: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4 and Episode 5: ICPC Round.

We wish you all the best and hope you enjoy Kotlin.

Hi all!

This weekend, at Nov/29/2020 10:05 (Moscow time) we will hold Codeforces Round 687. It is based on problems of Technocup 2021 Elimination Round 2 that will be held at the same time.

Technocup is a major olympiad for Russian-speaking high-school students, so if you fall into this category, please register at Technocup 2021 website and take part in the Elimination Round.

Div. 1 and Div.2 editions are open and rated for everyone. Register and enjoy the contests!

The problems authors are; amethyst0, eidan, Diegogrc, bensonlzl, JettyOller, antontrygubO_o, and KAN. Thanks to antontrygubO_o and 300iq for their help in coordination. Also huge thanks to testers for their invaluable help: Golovanov399, kalki411, golions, dantrag, Retired_cherry, gigabuffoon, Andres_Alumets, firi., coderz189, Nero, GGMU, K0u1e, Bench0310, dorijanlendvaj, Um_nik, thenymphsofdelphi, Merkurev, kokokostya, wucstdio, smile_boi, abhishhh1!

Have fun!

Thank you for participation! We hope you enjoyed the problems. Congratulations to winners!

Technocup 2021 - Elimination Round 2

1. Kirill22
2. fastmath
3. VEGAnn
4. alexxela12345
5. solver777

Codeforces Round 687 (Div. 1, based on Technocup 2021 Elimination Round 2)

1. ecnerwala
2. ainta
3. Konijntje
4. al13n
5. kort0n

Codeforces Round 687 (Div. 2, based on Technocup 2021 Elimination Round 2)

1. Sharpness
2. iLoveIOI
3. Linqi05
4. xaohu
5. detect

Upd: Rating updates published.

UPD2: The editorial is published.