rahulkhairwar's blog

Why does codeforces have registration for contests?
By rahulkhairwar, history, 8 years ago, In English

I was wondering why does codeforces have registration for contests, unlike some other sites like codechef, hackerearth allowing participants to participate even in ongoing competitions.

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8 years ago, # |
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because you have to be divided to rooms beforehand. you can only hack solutions of people in your rooms

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    yeah that does make sense!

    But, can't people be added to rooms after they make a submission? Because, anyways until they've got a solution accepted, they can't hack anyone else's solution, and also other people who want to hack a solution can do so with an accepted solution. So, won't dividing people into rooms during the contest suffice?

    It'll also be better for people who missed the registration and wanted to participate in the competition right?

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
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      OK. Give the principal of dividing. Time of submission, means something like who submit solution faster — enter the room with smaller number? It's not good because rooms with smallest number will always consist of contestants with higher rating. Is it neccesary to explain why it's not good? In my humble opinion, room differentiation must be random. How to divide it randomly if you don't know full list of contestants?

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        8 years ago, # ^ |
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        yeah I did think of that, but then can't a particular number of rooms be already decided for the contest(getting an idea of how many participants will be there from the previous few competitions), and be filled with people as the competition goes on, making sure that first 1 person has been added to each of the rooms, then the 2nd, and so on until rooms start getting full or maybe half full to maintain the difference in levels of the participants? and before all rooms are full, more rooms can be created to not let the same level people be added to any room..

        This might not be as accurate as dividing people into groups before the competition, but will let people who missed the registration by a few minutes participate.

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