TL;DR: Write an interesting CodeForces blog post until February 15th and win $300.

UPD: Second place will receive $50.

UPD2: Competition is over, The results are available here.

I am a huge fan of CodeForces and specifically CodeForces blog posts! There are tens and hundreds of gems posted on this platform throughout the years. Thankfully, recently there was added the catalog page where a lot of cool articles can be found. Personally, if I want to remember some classical algorithm, I would go to websites like cp-algorithms, but CodeForces is the place where new or rare stuff is born, where new points of view emerge. I think it is one of the most valuable functions of this website, and I would like to facilitate its growth. I know that many people have cool ideas in their minds that they came up with or maybe something that is known only in their community on a spoken basis, and they were always too lazy to share it with the world :) Now it is time!

That's why I am proposing the "Codeforces Month of Blog Posts", and I encourage everybody to participate. The rules are simple:

• Post something on CodeForces no earlier than January 1st (00:01 UTC) 2023;

• Send me a link to your blog post as a direct message on CodeForces before February 15th (23:59 UTC) 2023, and indicate that you are participating. I also recommend you post a link to your blog post in the comments here if you feel like it.

I would appreciate it if you also include a one-sentence explanation at the beginning of your blog post explaining this challenge and a link to the blog post you are reading right now so that more people can learn about it and participate, but it is not obligatory in any way, I am not forcing you to do so.

And the juicy part is: at the end of this 1.5-month period I will choose the winners, and the first place will receive a prize of $300 from me! And also thanks to rafaelgo we will be able to reward the second place with a $50 prize. But I hope you all understand that money is just a little motivation for you and the point of this is not money per se but fun.

Your blog post may be about anything you want but let me explain what I expect. As I said at the beginning, I love new ideas. So I would enjoy seeing blog posts that either introduce some cool new/rare algorithm/idea, a new interesting point of view on an already known algorithm, simplification of a classical complicated algorithm, some CP-related fascinating math construction, novel way of stress testing, etc. I think you get the point. Just create some unique piece of content related in any way to competitive programming.

I am excited to see all your amazing blog posts! Don't hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments. I am open to any suggestions. Maybe, you think that 1.5 months is not enough for you, and you want the deadline to be extended? Maybe, I didn't specify something precisely in the description of the challenge? Maybe, you would like to increase the prize fund and join the jury? Ask it in the comments or direct messages!

I wish you all a happy peaceful New Year. And talking about peace, I would like to remind you that there is a war going on in Europe right now. Ukraine is bravely standing against Russian aggression, and it needs your support. There is an uncountable number of ways you may help: both with money and your time. I will just list a couple of trusted volunteer organizations: https://wfu.world/en/, https://u24.gov.ua/, https://rassvet.world/en/sunrise/.