Ironically, or maybe not ironically, the ICPC and Codeforces logos are very similar.

This is definitely not a new observation, just something I found interesting.

and vice versa!

Both are ultimately forms of problem-solving, and getting better one has (at least in my experience) helped me get better at the other.

What do you all think?

A while ago, I was wondering if there was any way to avoid losing my rating when suddenly it struck me: What if I used public code on ideone to mark a submission as a "cheat submission" to be flagged for cheating and have my rating change canceled? I decided to put it to the test, participated in Round 833 (Div. 2), answered a few questions, and then submitted a cheat solution, copied directly from a public ideone, for problem A. Loh and behold, my -200 rating was canceled, and I remained blue.

So what's the moral of the story? I don't know. Cheaters should have their rating changes removed, but should they have it removed even if the change is negative? Until CodeForces takes action and allows cheaters to have negative rating changes, we can effectively negate any negative delta and only climb up and up. (Of course, this relies on the Carrot extension correctly predicting delta changes during the contest)

As a student (in Pacific, ie UTC-7) who regularly attends classes, I find it incredibly hard to compete in CF rounds and improve rating during the school year. I'm basically limited to only weekend contests, which are very rare. To anyone in UTC-7 who manages to compete during the school year, what tricks do you use?