Google_Kickstart_Plag's blog

Is Google Kickstart Credible Anymore?
By Google_Kickstart_Plag, history, 4 years ago, In English

Massive Plagiarism happening in recent Google Kickstart Rounds.

Cheating Happens in every CP Competition. Obviously, It can't be Controlled but what can be done running a plagiarism check and removing Cheaters from the ranklist. Google can't even run a Plag Checker for such a prestigious Competition. What is the point of giving such Competitions? They should either do a plagiarism check or should remove these lines from rules of google kickstart.

You may be disqualified from a Contest and forfeit any prizes you may be eligible to receive if Google reasonably believes that you have attempted to undermine the legitimate operation of a Contest, including by:

(E) Sharing or using from others any information about a problem (including its content or solution) before the end of a round unless expressly permitted by the applicable Rules or these Terms

I mailed them about Round C two months ago and they replied back "If we see evidence of cheating or unfair play, participants are disqualified. The results published on our site and scoreboards are now final. We also can't release any information about other competitors." I even doubt that they didn't read my mail properly. Okay, Round C submissions were strange but I didn't have full proofs. So, I let that thing go.

Round D plagiarism-

I have full proof for Round D. Many of solutions were circulated in this telegram group. This Person 1 and This Person 2 has submitted the same solutions that were posted in telegram group while the contest was live. Just Check the solutions once. Now ranklist has been finalized and no action taken against him. Why?? This is unfair for those who participate fairly. I’m also attaching the screenshots below.

Proofs -

The solutions are exactly same. (Even the name of variables are same.)

Check Solutions of both the accounts. All 4 AC solutions are same. There will be many more but I found these two- https://codingcompetitions.withgoogle.com/kickstart/submissions/000000000019ff08/SGFyc2hpdDU2NA https://codingcompetitions.withgoogle.com/kickstart/submissions/000000000019ff08/U2lkZGhhbnRfS2hhcmU

Round C plagiarism-

Check submissions of [this guy](https://codingcompetitions.withgoogle.com/kickstart/submissions/000000000019ff43/SGFyc2hpdDU2NA. The submissions of this guy are really suspicious. He submitted all his programs in around last 30 minutes. Why would any person do that? Let's talk about Countdown problem first. He made his first and second submission this problem at times 02:23:04 and 02:25:33 respectively. He used the variable 'testcases' for these submissions and these were WA. At 02:27:08 (just after a minute and a half), he submitted another solution which was totally different from first two submissions. He used variable 't' for this submission and even whole code changed. No sane person would change the name of variable if his ans is wrong.

Now, for Stable Wall, he submitted a solution in C++ at 02:27:39 which was a WA. At 02:46:49 and 02:57:56, he submitted two solutions in java (one was WA and other AC) and these two java codes are very much different. Similarly, He used three languages in Perfect Subarray problem with gap of very less minutes.

Finally for Candies, He submitted C++ code at 2:34:04 and a python3 code at 2:35:58 . Either he is so fast that he just prepared a python3 program in less than 2 minutes or he already knew c++ would give TLE, so he had prepared the python3 code in advance (just in case C++ doesn’t work). He surely have got codes from someone else. These strange things show that he must have got codes from different persons and have tried them all. Now this was not enough as proof to Google

Now does Google have any answers to above proofs? I mailed about Round D yesterday and got no response till now. Are there any Codeforces users who have good connection there and float this to them? So they disqualify cheaters from Ranklist. I am tagging people whom I think have connections with google. Petr I_love_Tanya_Romanova jonathanirvings born2rule Anushi1998 darkshadows

UPD: Google finally responsed that they will take it into Consideration.

UPD: Google again froze the ranklist as Round E ended. I guess they are not checking plagiarism again. Anyways, Contest was good.

  • Vote: I like it
  • +228
  • Vote: I do not like it

Comments Comments (61)
| Write comment?
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

Hope, Google will take strict actions against these cheaters

→ Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it +23 Vote: I do not like it

He even boasted about his awesome Kickstart performance on Linkedin and got 1000+ likes.Now that post has been deleted as he has been exposed.

![ ](Screenshot-20200713-193056)

Sad thing is that many cheaters manage to get top-500 rank in Google Kickstart. And also, Google never does plag check on kickstart ranklist as it gets finalized just 2-3 minutes after contest ends :(

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

    btw, as far i can see from standings there were 8200+ participants. I didn't see 11000+ participants :P

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      actually the ranklist have 8200++ ranks and no. of participants is 11k, if you observe correctly the last rank was awarded to hundreds of people as they had a total score of zero.

      → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -132 Vote: I do not like it

He apologizes for the same in his post. So don't blame anyone. But you can privately message about the same to the rank holders of code forces and kickstart. Personally I feel he might get hurt after seeing these and check the submission too he write code first then the second guy might be the second one seems to get this hatred as well. I am not taking his side but your account seems that u posted on Codeforces and Codechef for a personal grudge with him

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

    You are definitely the same guy who cheated im the contest, trying to defend yourself. All of your linkedin posts are deleted and there is no linkedin post made for apologizing to cheating.

    → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +113 Vote: I do not like it

Those guys can't even tell in which language the code was written even after seeing the code xD

→ Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it -58 Vote: I do not like it

Fu****ig indians cheat on codechef , kickstart everything

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +31 Vote: I do not like it

    I'm an Indian and because of such peoples i'm really feeling ashamed. ;-(

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

    Only indians? you sure? Cheating happens everywhere. In the world of competitive programming if nobody cheats, isnt it a very ideal situation? Are you willing to tell me that whatever country you are from, does not have cheaters i.e. has achieved one of the basic norms of being an ideal society!?

    Stereotyping will get you nowhere

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      this is not stereotyping as far as I know Codechef is Indian OJ and there a lot of cheaters there (Long challenges for example...)

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +73 Vote: I do not like it

        There are two reasons why most cheaters in CP happen to be Indians

        1) A lot of them do CP without any interest in it(for jobs apparently) 2) There are lots of Indians.

        → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

      Name one non-Indian who cheats frequently. Downvote me all you can, but you must recognise that there is aserious problem with programmers in our country.

      → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +19 Vote: I do not like it

    I think its wrong to blame every Indian. I am also Indian but never cheated like this so you can't judge it by doing of 1 person.

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

    I would suggest you to go and check some stats on number on Indian users on codeforces. Let me help. 25000+ users have registered from India. No other country is even half way near it. So a cheater randomly picked is more probable to be an Indian.

    With such a large number of Indian users, it makes the underrated ones more conscious about their rating. I totally agree these cheaters and killing the fun and they should be punished. Codechef and Google have pretty good plagiarism checker and the cheaters are being punished with a massive rating drop on codechef. Trust the Organizer.

    What i wanted to say was don't tag all Indian's as cheaters

    → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +57 Vote: I do not like it

I think Google doesn't care about cheaters at kickstart because of following reason :
1. There is no prize in it.
2. If Google call them for interview, then these guys will definitely fails.
3. They promote kickstart as a practice contest, not as hiring challenge or prize contest like code jam.

Now, what you call those who cheat in practice?

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -18 Vote: I do not like it

    So you mean to say cheating is allowed in Kickstart but not in CodeJam? Sorry, I never read anything like this in their official rules :)

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      No, I did't say anything about officials rules, I mean just ignore these cheaters they are not harmful to anyone except themselves :)

      → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 4   Vote: I like it -11 Vote: I do not like it

    You need to do a little research before posting. If you click on Rules,it will show you the Rules.

    PS. There is a separate practice round. It happened last year(in 2019) but not this year.

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +137 Vote: I do not like it

    Seriously?

    Fuck cheating. Period. Kickstart Round D is not a "practice contest."

    Prizes or not, Integrity is of utmost importance.

    → Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +20 Vote: I do not like it

    See I was interviewed on the basis of my Kickstart Performance last year. The point is even if the cheaters will fail at the interview but they are blocking some really good programmers from getting their chances. I don't think Kickstarts are now too reliable for shortlisting candidate for interviews.

    → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

I don't think anything will happen. and even if google took some actions, these people can always make new accounts and start doing same things. sad but true

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    If anyone does it again, he will be caught again(if there is plag check). Why would anyone cheat again when he knows that he will be disqualified and his submissions will be rejected?

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

      Why does robbers keep robbing?

      → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      there is plag checker for codeforces ,does that stop people from cheat , everytime we see so many people got plagged again and again

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        With that logic- Remove all the laws and rules in World- There will be no crimes in the world.

        → Reply
        • »
          »
          »
          »
          »
          4 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

          dnt get me wrong i wish that it could happen,i am just saying that it won't according to me

          → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +39 Vote: I do not like it

Since the people involved in cheating do it for the jobs, they will probably enter correct details while registering for the contest. So google should flag the cheaters such that they never get an interview call, either with a plagiarism check or if someone reports them like in this case. This will take away the motive of cheating from the cheaters.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    just wondering r u the same guy as google_kickstart_plag

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      So you think i created this account 8 months ago, thinking that in future i will need an alt account to comment on a post created by an alt account that i will create in future when someone will cheat in kickstart round D?

      Just wondering are you one of the guys from telegram groups?

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it -22 Vote: I do not like it

        i m not but thinking of joining one lol just kidding. if I were may be have gotten better rank this time.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +18 Vote: I do not like it

        I think you make this account 8 months ago, for just commenting non-sense. and you probably used it again!!

        → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

This is really shameful,cheating is always a shame,but in Kickstart,which is more oriented towards recruitment,such plagiarism could be career changing for some. Say google decides to pick top X ranks from Kickstart and say 3 guys plagiarized,then imagine how miserable the people with ranks X+1,X+2,X+3 would feel,and since there is some telegram group, these things seems to be happening in a large scale,which is attrocious,people should definitely look into it and these guys should be banned from google interviews forever.

→ Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +5 Vote: I do not like it

You should mail the Kickstart team at kickstart@google.com and not post here.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    4 years ago, # ^ |
    ← Rev. 3   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

    Hi,

    I have mentioned in my post that I mailed but still I will write again.

    I already mailed them for Kickstart Round C and they replied "If we see evidence of cheating or unfair play, participants are disqualified. The results published on our site and scoreboards are now final. We also can't release any information about other competitors." Okay, Round C submissions were strange but I didn't have full proofs. So, I let that thing go. For Round D, I mailed then around 30 hours ago with full proof of same submissions of two persons but no response yet and ranklist is again finalized. So, I posted it here. Please read my thread once.

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      4 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it +17 Vote: I do not like it

      I've read it, but I don't see a point of adding a post here, as people from Google rarely read posts here (as it was established in the past).

      You just got a bunch of comments saying that they should be disqualified and I agree with this. Something should be done, but trust me, such people will never pass any interview.

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +25 Vote: I do not like it
        such people will never pass any interview

        But for these people some honest person may miss the chance of even getting an interview. :(

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +13 Vote: I do not like it

        Wow, I finally got a mail just now saying they will take it into consideration.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +3 Vote: I do not like it

        But , problem is that such people will get chance of interview , and honest people won't . You should blacklist them , so that they will not be given any chance for interview in any company around the world .

        The only way to stop them , is to doom their future .

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        4 years ago, # ^ |
          Vote: I like it +11 Vote: I do not like it

        But because of these people, I am not even getting an interview, despite having < 250 ranks in 3/4 Kickstarts this year, top 100 in 1/4.

        → Reply
        • »
          »
          »
          »
          »
          4 years ago, # ^ |
            Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

          It's not because of these cheaters, it's because of current scenario, do you think Google hire intensively in this covid-19 situation??

          → Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +7 Vote: I do not like it

This is so sickkkkkk and heartbreaking.

→ Reply
»
4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +10 Vote: I do not like it

Apologies for the delay, I am no longer a regular visitor.

Plagiarism should definitely be taken into consideration and penalizing the matching code is important for a genuine rank list. I can help to forward the issue to the concerned team.

Apart from the ranklist, your calls for an internship/full-time offer should not be much affected because we analyze more on the submission and ranklist is just one part of it.

Nevertheless, cheating judges should be improvised.

→ Reply
»
3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

In Round D 2021, I am surprised to see that 1613 solved the 2 test sets for problem B, Cutting Intervals. This is a non trivial problem which require line sweep.

By the way, some people like saatvik_2001 (rank 1469) are obfuscating their code, which should be forbidden.

So it's pretty clear that the solution was leaked somewhere.

→ Reply
  • »
    »
    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    Why it's a non trivial problem? I have seen this kind of problem many times in Competitive programming. In fact, this kind of problem was the first that I was stuck on for 10 days and since then I have seen it way too many times.

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      If you are stuck for 10 days on "trivial" problem, how much time are you stuck on non trivial problem ?

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        3 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        Oh no, I think you got the wrong impression. I was stuck on the problem that uses this technique and that was three years ago when I was in my first semester in college. I started learning programming at that time. So it was difficult for me at that time and I took help of my cousin to learn this concept. And I am not talking about line sweep method, I solved this problem using difference array. And difference array problems appear many times in CP.

        → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        3 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

        We can also get stuck on trivial problems in the beginning. Also, fyi, I was stuck on that problem for 10 days because of Codechef Long Challenge time and I didn't know the concept of difference array at that time. Don't judge people like that.

        → Reply
  • »
    »
    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

    Sweep line for B.. Seriously? I solved it using difference array technique based on map.

    Also about the 3rd problem, it was a hefty implementation (at least for me) using set.

    → Reply
    • »
      »
      »
      3 years ago, # ^ |
        Vote: I like it 0 Vote: I do not like it

      3rd problem is not at hefty implementation. Mine was about 20 lines at max

      → Reply
      • »
        »
        »
        »
        3 years ago, # ^ |
        ← Rev. 2   Vote: I like it +4 Vote: I do not like it

        Yes bro that's why I mentioned "at least for me". Looks like I need to improve my implementation skills :(

        → Reply
»
3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +12 Vote: I do not like it

Just for curiosity, why are there so many people obsessed with kickstart to do such things ? Although I am pretty sure that they won't even get into top 1% and won't benefit anything from it.

→ Reply