aviralarpan3301's blog

What makes atcoder problems so good?
By aviralarpan3301, history, 3 hours ago, In English

I've recently started solving problems on AtCoder and noticed that the quality of problems is exceptional. Obviously Codeforces also offers great problems, AtCoder's seem to be on another level. Does anyone know why this might be? One possible reason could be that AtCoder hosts contests less frequently than Codeforces, allowing them to maintain a higher standard for problem quality.

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3 hours ago, # |
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I think less no words in Problem Statement of AtCoder makes it diff from other CP Websites

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    2 hours ago, # ^ |
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    That's not what I meant. Ofc the problem statements are short. But I meant, the "idea" to solve the problems are insanely good and imaginative. They use relatively simple techniques in very clever ways.

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2 hours ago, # |
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They are "so good" if you enjoy dumb math tricks. If you want codeforces to "maintain a higher standard" like this, just only accept rounds where all problems rely on invariants or variable substitutions, with statements and setups that have even less to do with the a real process you'd want to solve than on other websites.

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    119 minutes ago, # ^ |
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    I think AtCoder helps you get better in some important algos like Bs or DSU or the dumb math tricks as you said.

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    95 minutes ago, # ^ |
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    So codeforces is more preferred?

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    84 minutes ago, # ^ |
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    Controversial statement

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    78 minutes ago, # ^ |
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    When have CP problems been about resembling "a real process"

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      21 minute(s) ago, # ^ |
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      It's not like people made up algorithm ideas for no reason throughout history, and there are cp problems that reflect this. However, higher rated cp people more and more actively choose to make up nonsense instead of ideas that have some resemblance to could be useful, and like to recycle the same few Olympiad combinatorics math tricks in increasingly contrived setups.

      I think good problems are usually made thinking about what is real problem you want to solve and idealizing until solveable. But many just like to mash together random ideas and ask is this setup solveable (and when they come from the same set of math constructions they usually end up recycling the same line of insights), or force a problem onto a solution while trying to hide the inspiration through contrived setup.

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67 minutes ago, # |
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i never gave atcoder a real chance only tried afew ABC problems and 1 ARC and left is it really that good ?

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64 minutes ago, # |
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The problems are straight-forward and are written formally, so you skip the part where you "translate" the statement. I think that's the most significant reason why they are so good.

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40 minutes ago, # |
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They steal from codeforces

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