panipuri8's blog

Presenting to you the biggest cheat on Codeforces!
By panipuri8, history, 6 years ago, In English

Hello all,

I was recently intrigued by this account — Ali_Pi because of the notorious similarity of username with this account — Ali.Pi..

A short note on Ali.Pi — he has copy pasted thousands of problems' codes in the practice section, and climbed to the top of standings page [ LINK ] sometime last year. He had even beat the chinese bots to climb to the top! Talk about being jobless. He used to do virtual contests on every random contest — and copy past every problem's code and be #1 when you open the standing page. For what joy? We will have to ask him for the answer.

Coming back to the Ali_Pi account — his recent contest on CF — Codeforces Round #500 (Div. 1) based on EJOI — he had solved three problems — [ Submission for problem A ] [ Submission for problem B ] [ Submission for problem C ] .. Notice something weird? YES!, The ali++; lines that have been randomly added everywhere in each of his solutions. I was pretty sure he was doing this to escape the plagiarism detectors. So who did he copy this from?

Hello there, ckodser! Lets check his codes for the same three problems he had solved in the same round — [ Submission for problem A ] [ Submission for problem B ] [ Submission for problem C ] .. Did you notice it? Yes, the exact same code that Ali_Pi has submitted for the contest, minus the ali++; lines.

Submissions times during the contest:

Problem A : ckodser 00:15 Ali_Pi 00:16

Problem B : ckodser 00:25 Ali_Pi 00:27

Problem C : ckodser 00:58 Ali_Pi 01:01

The audacity to claim that the contest became a "typing contest" — a term used by CF participants to express that a contest had extremely easy and extremely hard problems and no intermediate ones — is baffling. Here's the link to his comment: LINK

**HELLO! ** .Ali.! Looks like you're another Ali_Pi account. Your submissions for A, B and C are again the same as ckodser, except that he has added "fu+=2;" lines to each of his Accepted submissions.

I tried checking out the various contests attended by Ali_Pi and every single one of his "Accepted" submissions during live contests have these "ali++;" lines. Further cementing my claim that he's one big cheat.

Cheating during contests is something that has been happening on CF, but on such a huge magnitude — a person almost achieving Grandmaster status through cheating is hard to believe.

Requesting the Codeforces community and MikeMirzayanov to act upon this and remove such cheats from this site.

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Comments Comments (58)
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6 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +30 Vote: I do not like it

"Talk about being jobless."
"I tried checking out the various contests attended by Ali_Pi and every single one.. "
Not that I am supporting him but from these 2 statements, you seem a bit of a hypocrite :P

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +85 Vote: I do not like it

    I was jobless for a day :P

    This guy copy pasted codes for 3200+ problems.. Should take weeks, if not months!

    There's a difference!

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      He could have just run a script for it. Programming has uses outside of competitive programming you know!

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      I can't realize a thing, they cheat, that's right... So what?? There are cheatings everywhere, most of us can't do anything, and at last, the cheaters won't gain anything! Is it really important that they are masters and you are an expert? Come on! That's just a color!! Who cares...

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        Yes, it probably isn't a problem if you're an expert or a specialist or even a CM, but what if these masters both outperformed a grandmaster, what if there were 10 master accounts that all outperformed one grandmaster. Then the rating change of that grandmaster will be calculated as if 10 masters outperformed him/her. IIRC, rating change is (at least partially) calculated based on how many people of higher rating did worse than you, and how many people of lower rating did better, meaning this grandmaster would not have a realistic rating change. The purpose may not be to have a high rating but this does beat the "sport" in "sport programming".

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
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          lol rating change calculated depends only on the set of worse participants and better participants relatively to a participant

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
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            no lol it also depends on the order of the people above/below you

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +46 Vote: I do not like it

WOW !! You Deserve A Codeforces Detective Title

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +109 Vote: I do not like it

I'm giving this a 30% chance that nothing happens, a 60% chance that his """punishment""" is getting a couple disqualifications, and a 3% chance that the system actually changes.

The other 7% probability was stolen by cheaters.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    What could you really do about this though?

    Almost any punishment is going to be ineffective because the cheater could just make a new account and hope that they'll not be caught again. It's not like you can fine or imprison someone for cheating on Codeforces.

    How would you change the system to prevent cheating like this? Sure, you could write better plagiarism checkers. But I don't think it will be very hard to bypass those either. You could, with reasonable effort, simply write a program to obfuscate/reshuffle your code. Besides, if I recall correctly, there have already been cases with the plagiarism checker giving false positives.

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
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      I believe punishments could more a bit more harsher.

      Currently people have a very low inhibition threshold, because there are so mild punishments. If they cheat on a contest and get caught, they just get the contest invalidated (if even). This is not a big loss at all.

      If there is something bigger at risk, e.g. risk getting your precious account deleted, it wouldn't be as much tempting as it is today.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        I don't know about that, it seems as though the person in question already has at least three accounts, including two in the yellow range. I don't know how precious an account is to someone who has not worked to get it where it is.

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

      You have to apply punishments that are significant enough to make them regret but not significant enough to make them quit every time (minus several hundred rating automatically, a cheater mark, so on).

      This way it's easier to brand who's a cheater and so on, and they will really feel a dilemma about cheating: "Should I keep the account??? it is high rated but now they know i am cheater... but i dont want to start cheating from 1500 again :(((". Really gives the cheater something to think about — more than just straight up banning.

      (One additional benefit to staggered punishment is that if some newbie accidentally leaks code on ideone, the first time punishment won't be the end of things, but it will be enough to make them diligent. A good balance between accidents and plain breaking the rules.)

      Of course, when there are enough infractions, then a ban is needed.

      In addition, obfuscated code is not allowed by codeforces rules. Otherwise no one would ever be able to hack. So you can punish those people automatically.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        In addition, obfuscated code is not allowed by codeforces rules. Otherwise no one would ever be able to hack. So you can punish those people automatically.

        Yeah well so is cheating. By "obfuscated code" I don't necessarily mean something that you would submit to the IOCCC. I mean "obfuscated" in the sense that it does not immediately resemble its source.

        Your security measures might work IF someone gets caught. Ali_Pi got caught because someone thought of looking through their submissions. And that happened because a similarly named account is near the top of the problemset standings. In fact, almost everyone who gets exposed in the blogs like this got caught because someone thought of looking. If some random, less notorious person cheated, no one would probably notice. If the chances of getting caught are negligible, the punishments matter jack shit.

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6 years ago, # |
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He didn't cheat, Muslims Don't cheat.

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6 years ago, # |
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This is surely not the first time:D say,

http://mirror.codeforces.com/blog/entry/60563?#comment-445138

http://mirror.codeforces.com/blog/entry/60563?#comment-445221

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6 years ago, # |
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he also copied this blog about a week ago but it is now deleted. https://mirror.codeforces.com/blog/entry/18050

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -41 Vote: I do not like it

I was wondering if CF can verify the accounts using mobile numbers or credit cards may be. Many sites do it this way.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    There are sites which provide you with fake takeaway mobile numbers for OTP.

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6 years ago, # |
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I don't understand why people have to cheat on codeforces? Color means nothing without real skills.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
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    becoming master in multiple accounts by cheating is a skill in itself not ethical though

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6 years ago, # |
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Codeforces should take strict steps against both of them. Cheating is such thing that u enjoy in beggining but later when u realize this a lot of time has been wasted.panipuri8 u r doing a good job like a responsible codeforcian person :p

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6 years ago, # |
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You know nothing panipuri8. :)

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
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    downvote. Thats all i'll say

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      There are so many blogs on cheating in recent blogs already and you are reopening this one with your useless comments.

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6 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -81 Vote: I do not like it

Who cares about an account cheating? How does it effect your job except a small amount of rating change?

I know it's a part of human being to feel bad about ones who reach a higher level without any effort. But if you think more about it, it doesn't matter at all, at least here in Codeforces.

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    6 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +46 Vote: I do not like it

    Are you saying I should cheat?

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      6 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it -91 Vote: I do not like it

      You can cheat if you want to. It's like playing a modded game, it shouldn't be illegal or have punishment, but there's no fun and progress in it.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        And where's the fun in playing against people who cheat?

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
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          IMO,actually i do get motivated (unless i know that topper is a cheater) as it boosts me do more and more by seeing his progress,so it does no harm to me,i am although progressing :D ,I see it as a target to achieve the tough..

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it -67 Vote: I do not like it

          I don't think competing with them matters that much. As the rating of the cheater and the guy who gives him the codes is the same, you can consider the cheater as another participant maybe?

          Of course I'd rather Codeforces to ban them, but it's been a few years and they didn't do anything new to stop cheaters. So I'm saying it's not that bad, live with it :).

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
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            Is it just me who takes competitive programming as sport activity, and also believes that fair play and mutual respect are among fundamental and key aspects of any sport?

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              6 years ago, # ^ |
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              Have nothing to say. Go make a big deal out of everything.

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          6 years ago, # ^ |
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          Batman means that you know who you really are,others cheating doesn't matter because the most important thing is the skill which you have achieved,just focus on your goal

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            6 years ago, # ^ |
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            If the most important thing is the skill I already know I've achieved, then competing doesn't give me anything. If it's the skill I think I've achieved and prove it by getting good results, then cheaters stand in the way of that.

            This kind of motivational speech may sound nice and motivate people, but it doesn't actually make sense.

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              6 years ago, # ^ |
              ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it -42 Vote: I do not like it

              programming is a way that never ends so you can't say competing doesn't give you anything but if you still thinking such that, as Batman said "Have nothing to say.Go make a big deal out of everything."

              I'm tired of giving results and defining it for the people who don't care

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                6 years ago, # ^ |
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                so you can't say competing doesn't give you anything

                I was presenting it as one of the possible interpretations, idk why you're singling it out as something I claim to believe. Anyway, it's not true that competing doesn't give me anything, but with cheaters, it gives me less. It's that simple.

                Go make a big deal out of everything.

                So not caring is good?

                for the people who don't care

                So not caring is bad?

                You're not making sense again. If it's as irrelevant as you claim, why make several posts and complain about people who "don't care"?

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
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                  for the people who don't care

                  again you didn't get it I mean you're just repeating you're idea and don wanna understand what others are saying to you

                  (please don't reply my comment again I've said you <<I'm tired>>)

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                  6 years ago, # ^ |
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                  You're not tired enough to reply, you still talk nonsense and you don't get to tell me what to do.

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        6 years ago, # ^ |
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        So are you saying you cheat on regular basis?

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6 years ago, # |
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a person almost achieving Grandmaster status through hacking is hard to believe.

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6 years ago, # |
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Is this not a known thing? I remember seeing in like 3 different contests that people had reported him for cheating.

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6 years ago, # |
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Giving badge of cheating would be a good punishment which would shine on their profile.

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6 years ago, # |
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There may be a possibility that These Account all belong to ckodser, who is looking for more than one high-rated accounts.

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

Almost all posts about cheating received 500 upvotes, but the cheaters were not punished.

MikeMirzayanov could you do something please?

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4 years ago, # |
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I think the biggest punishment would be the stigma associated with cheating, the humiliation when you see this blog when someone google's your name, I think that would deprive them off boasting rights, and render this account useless, as literally everyone knows how you got there.

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4 years ago, # |
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Maybe Codeforces can search for correlations between users by comparing the timestamps of their submissions. And then once those are flagged, they can use something like MOSS or hand-checking to determine if there was actually cheating going on.

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