Nickolas's blog

April Fools Day Contest 2016
By Nickolas, 9 years ago, translation, In English

The contest is over; I hope you've enjoyed it :-) Editorial is here. See you next year!

The fourth April Fools Day Contest will take place on Friday April 1st. This is a joke competition in which solving the problem is often easier than figuring out what the actual task is. Thanks to kit1980 and Codeforces team for their help in preparing problems.

In this round you'll be given 7 weird problems and 2 hours to solve them. The contest will use ACM ICPC rules (no hacks, the standings are decided by the number of solved problems and penalty time earned on them), and it will be unrated. You can submit solutions in any language allowed by Codeforces — well, unless the problem says otherwise ;-) To get an idea of what the contest will look like, you can check out the contests of the past years: 2012, 2013, 2014.

Be warned, to enjoy competing in this round you'll need a sense of humor compatible with mine! Good luck, and have fun!

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +146 Vote: I do not like it

April Fool's joke:

Us: Woo, unrated contest.

CodeForces: April Fool's, it's rated.

Us: rating drops

CodeForces: Just kidding... all newbies become legendary grandmaster...

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -17 Vote: I do not like it

Awesome!

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

    Yes the joker man!!!
    You did the best!

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

 You can submit solutions in any language allowed by Codeforces — well, unless the problem says otherwise...

oops, fells like I should have learned another language rather than just c++, but wait a second, it's April Fools day, so probably a joke ^_^

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

Can we participate as a team ? It would be more fun I think.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -16 Vote: I do not like it

Is it ok to privately collabrate with friends during contest?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

The problem statements for the previous April Fool's contests are insane! It will be fun! Eagerly waiting for it! But please don't April Fool us.Hope it's really unrated!

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

    That would be the evilest thing I could imagine

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

I am not participating. What if the part that says that the contest is unrated is an April fools prank and it is actually rated?

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +42 Vote: I do not like it

    What if there's actually no contest and the announcement was just a prank?

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

      What if the complete announcement is true and the part that is fooling us is the part about April Fool, while actually they are not making any fool out of us?

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +14 Vote: I do not like it

      That would be so last year. I'm not really into that kind of jokes, I prefer something more elaborate ;-)

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

Seems interesting! I don't mind if "unrated" is a joke, it makes it a lot more exciting in my personal opinion.

Well, have fun everyone. ;-)

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -12 Vote: I do not like it

Is it rated?

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +6 Vote: I do not like it

    The author says unrated but the comments say otherwise

    It's not an easy question :D

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    The contest will use ACM ICPC rules (no hacks, the standings are decided by the number of solved problems and penalty time earned on them), and it will be unrated.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    why not))

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

Think too much but so funny！

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

There may be an April Fool Problem. The Problem is Present but no Problem Statement , Input & Output . Like This :

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

From blog/entry/4255:

A special contest written by me and no special programming language? Impossible!
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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

It's my personal contest, 10x 2 Nickolas :)

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

waited for two years...

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -18 Vote: I do not like it

hope it's rated ~ so I can become a specialist

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

This is what had happened in 2014th April Fool Contest. Really making us Fool :-p

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -6 Vote: I do not like it

Sounds interesting..

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

That is exactly at 0:00 on April 2 in Beijing ,which is mocking!

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

Hey, guys! I didn't have a Codeforces account until last year's October and now that I see that there were April Fools Day Contests, can anyone tell me why hasn't there been a contest last year?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

It's 13-be-dar in Iran, we are supposed to go outdoor for a whole day and spend the day with family and nature. Well, except programmers, it seems!

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

what is the solution of A problem

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

It was awesome!!!
(the best joke I can say :D )

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -35 Vote: I do not like it

。

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +29 Vote: I do not like it

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

Wow amazing tasks. Waiting for the ultimate prank "the contest is rated" to return to yellow. :P

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9 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

So what's the deal with problem F? Is it really OEIS? Is there a way to do it without URL requests?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Problem G. I see what you did there :)

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

The problem is a joke haha

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

Hey, what's wrong with submission for G using Python?

Support of this language is discontinued, starting today. Please rewrite your project using something more modern.

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

    You should submit it in 2 languages and add a "kitten" at last

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      9 years ago, # ^ |
      ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      Hmm... Thought about the second language, but what is a #kattie? And how do you know that?

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        The judger will notice you add a kitten when you submit with the second language

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

          Wow, that awesome, thank you

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        When you submit it with 2nd language, you will get something like:

        So many characters... Can't your code be shorter? Please remove 8 more characters.'

        Then when your code is short enough, you will get:

        Needs a finishing touch... Can you add a kitten?

        And you need to add a 'kitten' in your program, for me it means you need to make it shorter again..

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

          Aha, now I got the title :)

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          9 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it -8 Vote: I do not like it

          I copied someone else's code, and got So many characters... Can't your code be shorter? Please remove 117 more characters dafuq!

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

I really need to know how to solve problem A. It's driving me crazy

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

really don't understand why problem A like this...

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9 years ago, # |
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How do I solve D? I kind of saw a pattern of a cipher but couldnt decode it

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

    number of '1' in octal form of input (sry for bad English)

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it
    1. plain Brainfuck (You SHOULD recognize it.)
    2. Malbolge (Search "zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba esolang" on Google)
    3. Piet (Search "C00000 esolang" on Google)
    4. Befunge (You MIGHT recognize it. If you don't, check the list of esolangs with ><v^, i.e. "left right up down")
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      9 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      Some years ago here was a contest with Befunge as the only (?) acceptable language. That was awesome.

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

Can we still submit the solution after the contest ?

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +50 Vote: I do not like it

Loved F. Epic troll.

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

For G, why WA on test 1 when all verdicts are OK?

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

    this question is driving me crazy. I saw my code to pass all test and get WA on 1 twice. Still hoping for some kind of magic

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

      Hint: click on the "Wrong answer on test 1"

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

        We had to use different languages? Can you tell me about any of them?

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        9 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        what does "Your code is overly controlled. " mean?

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

          Don't know. Could you, please, post the entire message? My message was about unsupported language.

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

            I got it... it is for problem E and mean I used the keywords that I didn't have to use

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

Today I learned how to get a pointer from a label in GCC to implement if without the usual keywords. I want to unsee that, but I can't...

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    9 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

    I thought about this idea for a moment but luckily I found a better way. std::for_each and std::max/std::min to the rescue!

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9 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

Guess，Guess，write，write，and I always got an WA

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

We can use Ruby to solve E easily. 'if' can be replaced by 'unless' while '1.upto(n)' or '(1..n).each' for 'for'

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