Improving problem statements — adding invalid input examples.

Revision en2, by muxecoid, 2021-06-22 12:18:38

For quite some time I am using codeforces for candidate screening in job interviews.

One common suggestion to improve problem statement clarity is to add examples of invalid inputs to problems with constrains.

For example in 1469A - Regular Bracket Sequence multiple candidates misunderstood the requirement of exactly one '(' and one ')', perhaps because the brace symbol itself was not quoted. Without quotes () looked like a part of sentence to some.

The following examples could be used for such problem to improve clarity

Too many braces

  1
  (())

Not enough braces

  1
  (????????????????

Input overly long

  1337
  .....
  .....
  .....
Tags #codefoces, #meta, #statement

History

 
 
 
 
Revisions
 
 
  Rev. Lang. By When Δ Comment
en2 English muxecoid 2021-06-22 12:18:38 248 Explain why problem was misunderstood by some readers
ru3 Russian muxecoid 2021-06-22 12:03:56 2 Мелкая правка: 'ть читабелбнось услов' -> 'ть читабельнось услов'
ru2 Russian muxecoid 2021-06-22 12:03:06 102
ru1 Russian muxecoid 2021-06-22 12:01:57 633 Первая редакция перевода на Русский
en1 English muxecoid 2021-06-22 11:56:17 550 Initial revision (published)