zscoder's blog

Attempts on Cheating in Live Contests by PMing users who ACed
By zscoder, history, 8 years ago, In English

I don't know about others, but recently I've been getting quite a number of private messages on CF and Hackerrank (well basically anywhere with a PM system) that sounds like this :

"Hi, regarding codechef long challenge october.. How to do that power sum problwm.. did u get any idea.. if so. then please drop me a hint.. thanks"

"Hi,

I was trying POWSUMS in this month's codechef long challenge. Can I get a hint for that problem?

Thanks"

"Can you send me the code for Simplified Chess engine or give me how to solve it ?"

"Hi Zi,

Any hints for Shashank and the Palindromic Strings

Thanks."

and more (FYI "POWSUMS", "Simplified Chess engine" and "Shashank and the Palindromic Strings" are live contest problems)

Is anyone else getting these PMs too? I find them annoying like it when you see "You received 2 new messages" and all of them are asking for hints/sols/code for a live contest problem. Why do people do this? It's not like anyone is going to tell them the solution anyway.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +64 Vote: I do not like it

I don't receive such PMs in CF (fortunately), but on HR I see them from time to time, along with questions like "How to become a good sport programmer". Since some time I simply don't read PM on Hackerrank.

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8 years ago, # |
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I also often get those. And couple of times from the same people. It's really annoying when you see the notification that someone wrote to you. You are excited to see who wrote to you. And then you see — ..... asked you about a problem from an ongoing contest. Also it has happened during a codeforces round.

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8 years ago, # |
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I receive them every time I luckily do well in an Indian student only competition .. The worst I have received till date has been this ..

Hey send me some of your solutions for the hackerrank morgan stanley hackathon. I badly need an internship. I promise i will not share it with anybody else. Please help me I know one or two problem solution will not make much a difference to you .Please help. Please send atleast 3 codes

I will soon be pretty famous for weird / rude replies to these kind of messages xD

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8 years ago, # |
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That's nothing. I once got invited to join a cheating ring :p I didn't say no directly, to see just how serious he was about the offer. He mailed me before every CF contest after that, until one day I decided I'll tell the poor guy I can't help him and his ring.

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8 years ago, # |
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I receive these kind of messages too on Hackerrank and Hackerearth. Some people even send the codes of problems saying something like:- Hey , could u tell me what is wrong in this code?

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8 years ago, # |
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I would respond like "This is my bank account xxxxxx, please send in $1,000,000 for each code you want first"

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
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    Remove some 0s from that figure and I am pretty sure someone will end up paying XD

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8 years ago, # |
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In case this happens for any CodeChef ongoing contest, if you can send us the proof of such an event to feedback@codechef.com and help us investigate the matter, I promise that we will take action against the person.

We will also add this to our Code Of Conduct.

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8 years ago, # |
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I also get a lot of messages like these on hackerrank. They are generally related to ongoing codesprint used by various companies for recruitment. Often, there is a profile pic of a cute looking girl.

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8 years ago, # |
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This has happened me in Codechef and Hackerearth. The first time it happened I was a little naïve and I answered some generality (i.e. I rephrased the problem). From there on, I ignored the guys straightforward.

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -40 Vote: I do not like it

zscoder, it is a common problem here though. People are trying to change it. I have asked a few youtubers to give a thought to making a video around this, if it is possible for them. That said, thank you for bringing this forward. I believe they will eventually see there is no merit to engaging in these things.

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