In recent days, I have seen too many blogs about cheating. It's actually disheartening to see that the true spirit of CP is dying day by day. CP was considered a sport when I started, but now people have misinterpreted it as a shortcut for job opportunities.
The rank inflation these days is unbelievable; I see many newbies/pupils solving up to D/E, where the problem rating might be around 2000. One possible reason for this "sudden increase" might be the ongoing intern/placement seasons, where students have to showcase their fake ranks on their resumes.
In the recent EPIC(Div1+2) contest, I was ranked ~4300 after the contest, and after the plag check, I was moved to 3535. Wtf? ~800 cheaters in the top 4000 is actually a crazy reason.
I request everyone to stop cheating as it won't benefit you anywhere; it may help you in the short run, but ultimately, you'll be exposed among the genuine coders. Fake/higher CP rankings will get you in trouble during interviews and in the company as well.
For example, if you show that you are a higher expert, the interviewer might give you a harder problem, expecting you to solve it or at least come close to it. People who are not able to solve even B on their own, solving up to D/E during contests, will face problems. You may achieve higher ranks and ratings to showcase on your resume, but there is a high possibility that a genuine specialist might perform better than you.
And come on, what will you gain from this? Cheating will not only damage your reputation but will also hinder your own growth and learning. Ultimately, the knowledge and skills you acquire genuinely will truly benefit you in your career. Cheating might offer temporary gains, but it's the true understanding and problem-solving abilities that will set you apart and ensure long-term success.
Thanks for reading!
the logical reasoning will totally work
For anyone cheating in Competitive Programming for the sole purpose of getting a "good" job, Trust me, it won't help. Interviewers are smart enough to give you problems that will be challenging to you, based off your rating. This means that a real rating of 1200 is better than a fake rating of 1900.
Agreed. Also cheaters' accounts are suspicious and should alert interviewers that something is off.
I've heard that in India one cannot even get a job interview until they show a decent rating on some CP platform. I don't know of it is true or not, bit if it is, then cheating won't stop any time soon, unless IT companies abandon this practice. And they probably won't, because it is such an easy and cheap way to reject job candidates.