nocriz's blog

Is TopCoder dying? Shall I start participating in Topcoder SRMs in late 2019?
By nocriz, history, 5 years ago, In English

TopCoder has been a famous competitive programming platform and I've heard of TopCoder for years. I've never participated in TopCoder rounds though. Like many of my friends, I started to really participate in online rounds since 2018, and Topcoder's fame already seemed to fade.

Last year, I did attempt to participate in a SRM, but I met various difficulties. Possibly I'm not clever enough but participating in SRM is indeed much complicated than participating a Codeforces Round.

  • The java applet was confusing.
  • I didn't know where to find the time of the next SRM. Although I saw posts of SRM announcements on Codeforces, it is usually the day after the round.
  • The TopCoder website didn't seem like a competitive programming website.

In the end, I didn't success in participating in any SRM. A few days ago, I finally find the current Topcoder Competitive Programming Page with the future contest time, solution, problem archive etc. The Link. (Last year, all I found was the arena. That was indeed confusing to me, I never imagined that there is a separate page.) It is finally possible for me to start participating in TopCoder, but I found that on TopCoder, SRM participants in 2019 are typically ~300, while a few years ago there were ~2000 people in a single round.

I'm a bit worried that TopCoder is dying and start participating on a new platform is probably not a good idea for me, and that I will encounter more difficulties or that there will be even less or none participant in the future. However, I heard that the problems were good, Is it true? What are your suggestions for someone that wants to participate in TopCoder Contests in late 2019 to make it easier?

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Auto comment: topic has been updated by nocriz (previous revision, new revision, compare).

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +36 Vote: I do not like it

I want CSA & Topcoder back. :(

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +72 Vote: I do not like it

Don't bother with Topcoder now. Though, they are fixing their platform (for some time now) and let's hope to see the new version soon. Current issues include: input size limit, random x4 running time, old arena and problem-setting software, stupid batch test OK verdict. Once they use new backend (already applied in marathons, I think), things should finally be convenient for users and for setters — the latter brings more setters and thus increases the problem quality. I guess and hope and all of that means that Topcoder will see its former glory.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +60 Vote: I do not like it

    let's hope to see the new version soon

    Considering how long I've been telling myself that, I'm not holding my breath.

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5 years ago, # |
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It's worth competing in, I think. Just don't expect much anything on the technical side of things. The Java applet is trash, but it's the best you have.

SRM announcements on CF are a few hours before, I don't think I've seen a single one that was made after the round.

while a few years ago there were ~2000 people in a single round

If by "few" you mean like 9, then yeah. It's been steadily dropping, but for most of my time competing, the number of participants (div1+div2) has been in the low hundreds.

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    5 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

    Well, It is true that SRM announcements on CF are a few hours before, but since I checked CF around once a day I usually can't see the announcements before the contest.

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5 years ago, # |
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IMO quality of problems became worse than was several years ago. I think this is because of changes in rounds coordinators authors and testers teams.

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5 years ago, # |
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I feel like TopCoder is a great example of a website that killed itself by a redesign.

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5 years ago, # |
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I got my start in competitive programming there, so, I am very sad that they totally destroyed their competitive programming community. I keep hoping one day they will turn it around (but now I don't hold my breath, as others are saying also).

Couple of thoughts, so you can consider participating.

1) Although small, the SRMs still attract the very best. Here are last 10 winners:

  • SRM 767 Deretin
  • SRM 766 tourist
  • SRM 765 Petr
  • SRM 764 Petr
  • SRM 763 ecnerwal
  • SRM 762 tourist
  • SRM 761 Petr
  • SRM 760 fjzzq2002
  • SRM 759 tourist
  • SRM 758 Petr

So it's not big like CF, but the quality of competition is very high.

2) You say the Applet is horrible, but, did you install a "plugin" yet? Most importantly, for auto-parsing the problem statement and auto-testing your solution against the samples. You should be able to type in your solution into the editor and hit ONE button to test against all the samples without any extra effort. Without a plugin, the java Applet will indeed be horrible. You can find several plugins.

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5 years ago, # |
← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

In fact, Topcoder has an Official calendar that can be added to your Google Calendar (or maybe some other calendar apps). You can see the schedule of future SRMs a few months earlier.

Edit Oops, I missed the line that you found the page while reading this blog and wrote this comment, sorry.

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