So I was wondering if it is possible to host math competitions in a way similar to Codeforces. The obvious difficulty would be checking the solutions, since they are normally written in a natural language, meaning they cannot be checked automatically (at least yet). However, there are programming languages/proof assistants such as [Lean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_(proof_assistant)) allowing you to write mathematical proofs that can be verified by a computer. I am not actually familiar with any of them, so I have two questions:
- Are these languages mature enough or can become mature enough in the nearest future to host math competitions similar to the style of Codeforces.
- As far as I know, doing math on a computer is still quite a niche thing in the math community. Do you think such competitions could make it more popular?
My reasoning is that a working mathematician might be reluctant to start using Lean, since there is no immediate personal benefit. However, students would be more willing to try for the sake of competitions, and then continue using it in academia in the future.
what a great idea! maybe LLMs could help As for my opinion, I'm totally interested in taking part in such contests
Hey! Would love for you to check out MathDash — we have a lot of contests — as well as some proof-based ones
hey this is quite interesting, but I think it is still quite different from what I had in mind
It doesnt have to use proofs, it could be like project euler, where you just submit the solution. Ofcourse, this would make it insanely prone to cheating, so im not sure if this is an actual solution to the problem
I think this would also put a strong constraint on the types of problems that can be offered