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MikeMirzayanov's blog

For contest writers: proposal tracking system
By MikeMirzayanov, 8 years ago, translation, In English

In 2021, some details (including requirements for problem writers) were changed. Read the link for details.

Hello, Codeforces!

New year brings changes to the Codeforces team. As you probably know GlebsHP completed his work as the chief coordinator of Codeforces. Gleb, thanks a lot! You did an excellent job and coordinated a lot of interesting rounds. You're a professional, an interesting person, you have impeccable taste to problems, and you proved to be brilliant and talented writer. Thank you that you were with us! Hope to see your tasks on Codeforces many times again!

Nikolay KAN Kalinin came to Gleb's place. He is also an experienced participant, Nikolay has already held several rounds as a coordinator. KAN seriously engaged in programming contests since he was 12 years old. His major achievements: he won twice All-Russian School Team Olympiad; he won All-Russian School Olympiad (the 1st place!); he has two Gold medals in International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI 2013, 2014), bronze medal in the ACM-ICPC World Finals 2016 and he took the third place at the RCC 2016. This is the highest level! I am very pleased that Nikolay has joined the Codeforces team. I am confident we will succeed!

And here there is the first innovation of 2017 year. The idea to ​​organize work with proposals has swirled in my head for a long time. It turned out well: KAN visited Saratov to get acquainted with the whole Codeforces team and celebrate the New Year together. And we not only had a good time, but found some time to discuss details how we see our work with writers. Here's what happened.

Writers Requirements

All the functionality described below is only available for experienced contestants and writers of past rounds. There are requirements on the number of rated contests depending on your color (magic does not work here, sorry).

color the minimum number of rating contests
blue 25
violet 15
orange 5
red no restrictions
Was already a writer in the past no restrictions

Please do not assume that the requirements are too strict. Our experience shows that it is hard to work with writers who are inexperienced as contestants . If you are a writer/jury member with experience in other competitions/events, please write KAN a private message about your wish to prepare a contest and describe your experience in this area. Be respectful to the coordinator decision, if it prompts you to achieve the general formal requirements prior to review your proposal.

Writers Reward

Preparation of the round is fascinating, but large and demanding work. We have the opportunity to reimburse the effort of the writers according to the following tariff:

Round Type $
Div 1 + Div 2 $250 + $50*
Div 2 $100 + $50*

An asterisk denotes a bonus, which is issued in case of work in time, without any issues

If a round is a part of a championship, there is an additional bonus, which is discussed separately.

I dream to raise reward to writers. I dream to see the most experienced, the most creative and interesting writers give our users the opportunity to participate in their rounds on Codeforces! Codeforces rounds attract record number of participants from around the world (the next frontier is 10000 registrations!), I personally offered a large number of problems — the chance to give an interest to participants is priceless.

Please send us your problems, spend contest proposals! We can make a platform, we can build a process, we can host championships. But we can't invent and prepare problems on each round.

How to propose a contest (можно читать всё!)

Those who meet the requirements will find the special link “propose a contest/problems” in the personal menu in the right sidebar. Click on it and you will have the opportunity to offer a contest, add problems to it. Read all instructions carefully. Carefully prepare and submit your proposal for a contest and for problems. I think that user interface is simple and intuitive.

Now, you can use only new system to submit proposals. If you have already received an answer from KAN for current proposal, you shouldn't transfer it to the new system. If the response has not been received yet and the proposal in actual, please, use the new system to send the proposal again.

The discussion of your ideas will be in comments mostly. Perhaps at a later stage it will be a possibility to communicate with the coordinator through any messenger.

Please be active, respond to coordinators' questions in time, make the proposed changes quickly. Remember that Codeforces coordinators are very experienced as participants and as reviewers . Their opinion is important, always balanced, and they have the highest priority in any decisions on the problems.

When the work goes to the preparation of problems in Polygon, the pre-read the examples of well-prepared problems, read all articles about using testlib. It is not difficult, but once you understand, you will be able to prepare high-quality problems for any Olympiad!

Conclusion

Later we come up with how to adapt the system for educational rounds (they come back!), for educational problems. With the new system we will get rid of lost proposals and can significantly automate and organize the process of working with them. I am sure that the system will be upgraded in the future and will become more flexible, more comfortable, more functional.

I hope that in 2017 we will host a lot of interesting rounds with your help. I hope you are waiting for them as well as I'm waiting!

MikeMirzayanov

  • Vote: I like it
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Comments Comments (56)
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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -77 Vote: I do not like it

And still sgu is dead :(

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8 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -57 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for everything you do Mike!

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +58 Vote: I do not like it

    I don't know why people like you plague the intelligent conversation that goes on in the CodeForces comment section.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +71 Vote: I do not like it

      What intelligent conversation? We are a culture of memes.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +114 Vote: I do not like it

How are people who send just a problem (not a whole round) rewarded? :D

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +79 Vote: I do not like it

    They have to send one problem less to propose a round.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

    Now we do not review single problems, only contests. It is possible that this will be changed in future.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

Nice initiative! Hope this will result in much more contests!

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +29 Vote: I do not like it

Goodbye GlebsHP Thank you for all the great contests. You were awesome.

Hello KAN! I look forward to all the great contests. I am hoping your awesome.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -16 Vote: I do not like it

Thanks for your hard work, it's always appreciated. I really wonder how you will handle duplicate problems or problems you can find solution easily on Google. Some of the latest contests in 2016 were really upsetting.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -115 Vote: I do not like it

After That :: There will be ::

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +21 Vote: I do not like it

What about educational round problems, can we send them now so they can be used later or should we wait until the educational rounds come back?

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +105 Vote: I do not like it

About the color requirements: the color must be the current color, or the maximum color?

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +48 Vote: I do not like it

    Current

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      7 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +2 Vote: I do not like it

      I have an another question about color requirement:

      Sometimes it will happen following situation:

      • when the writer is decided, his color was OK for writer
      • but when the contest is held, his color isn't OK for writer.

      What will do in this pattern? Be contest will held, or the contest will made by problem stock of another people?
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8 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +29 Vote: I do not like it

If we want to propose a contest with another co-authors, should all of the problems be proposed in one account only (e.g the main author), or should they be written separately (each co-authors propose their own problems)?

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

    It is a little bit better to do each peoblem proposal from concrete aurhor. But it is not required and strict rule. Just add all co-writers as co-authors to contest proposal.

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8 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -6 Vote: I do not like it

DELETED

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +53 Vote: I do not like it

I'm glad to hear KAN is now official coordinator, congrats Nikolay :)

Nikolay was (and currently is!) a good friend (yes! he is really kind when working) for me while preparing my round (Codeforces Round 383 (Div. 1) and Codeforces Round 383 (Div. 2)). Also he is really experienced, for example he found a similar problem to my old Div.1 D and that problem deleted.

Also his suggestions was great, current Div.1 C was Div.1 A (yes it really was !!) because I though it's really simple (although you saw it was hard even for Div.1 C), he said that it isn't easy, first swapped with Div.1 B, and finally Div.1 C.

Also he is really kind, several times during the preparation I became angry from something (for example his decisions) and he told nothing to me and waited for me to become calm.

After all, I'm here to say : Thanks Nikolay, you though me many thing during the round preparation, and you are a great man, extremely waiting for high school to finish and my next round with you (As I said before, I have a complete problem set (Div.2 A to Div.1 E) to hold anther round, but I'm really busy before July 07, 2017. Although working on Div.1 E has started).

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -35 Vote: I do not like it

Out of topic : Sorry , but can someone tell me what is the notifications button for ? it's the first time to me watching it :)

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8 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

Is it possible to edit/delete the proposed problem? The only option is "Open to review". So before it is added to a contest, it should be reviewed by codeforces?

UPD: I mean, what's the point of proposing a problem without choosing a contest for it?

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +28 Vote: I do not like it

    Right now, you can propose a problem without contest only for educational round, use prefix er- to do this.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      I proposed a problem for educational round and then realized that I can't solve it. Is there a point to leave it? And is there a way to remove it?

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        8 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        I don't see anyway to delete problems but you can always mark it as wrong in the title/statement/comment or something.

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

      Hi KAN, Recently I added a few problems as "review", and not make any contest proposal yet (though I want to hold div2 contest in the future). But I changed my mind and want to use one of problems in other online judge. So,

      • Can I delete problems? If yes, how to?
      • Can I confirm that any coordinator didn't see my problems?

      Thanks!

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        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +22 Vote: I do not like it

        Hi! No, it is not possible to delete problems, but I confirm that no coordinator saw your problems unless a coordinator was assigned.

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +47 Vote: I do not like it

"After publishing — within two days to two weeks — you will get feedback in comments to the contest ans to the problems"

Looks like the queue is quite long for this statement to be true :\

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

    Yeah, the number of proposals is unexpectedly large, I do my best to cope with them.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +77 Vote: I do not like it

      Just a suggestion : Maybe an indication on our current position in the queue somewhere might be a good idea, so we get an idea on how long to wait.

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      8 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +15 Vote: I do not like it

      Can you tell us how many div1 proposals you have in queue?

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8 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I proposed a problem for a codeforces Div 2.round , should i come up with 4 more problems for the problem to be reviewed or can it be included in a future contest with problems from other authors?

Thanks.

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    8 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Single problems are only being considered for Educational Rounds at the moment according to the guidelines on the proposal page.

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7 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

What about the current status of single problems? Are they being considered for div2/ div1 ?

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

Are unrated contests counted as participation?

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Nope

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      Even if the contest is official like Round 536? It turned to unrated due to laggy issues.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

If blue means expert, what does specialist mean???

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5 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

If a team want to create a contest,but some of the members can't reach the requirement.Is that Okay?

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

I sometimes hear someone wants to propose Div. 3 contests, which didn't exist when this article was posted, but I can't find any information about proposing Div. 3 contests. Is it possible for us to propose Div. 3s as we have proposed Div. 2s so far? If we can, how should we propose them?(I can't find the choice in the proposing form)

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

    maybe it is reserved for vovuh? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

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4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -16 Vote: I do not like it

If a contestant participate 25 ratting contest as blue+violet and not of 25 contest as a blue and also not of 15 contest as a violet, what happened thats time? Is he/she can propose for problemsetting. I am confused.

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