dolphingarlic's blog

What to do at the IOI after you (inevitably) solve everything
By dolphingarlic, history, 4 years ago, In English

With IOI just around the corner, some of you may be wondering: "what should I do after I AK after 3 hours?"

In this post, I'll share some activities that you can do to pass the time!

(Note that some of these may not be applicable for an online IOI)

Level 1 — Built-in software on your computer

The most obvious thing you can do is use the built-in stuff. I'm talking about playing Minesweeper, reading the C++ documentation, or anything similar.

While Minesweeper is quite fun and the C++ documentation is... interesting, Minesweeper quickly becomes boring and you'll look like a huge nerd if you read the documentation (and you don't want that, do you?)

That's why I'll only recommend this if you're a noob and only AK in 4 hours.

Level 2 — Creating software

So you've beaten Minesweeper 10 times already and read through the C++ documentation twice. What next? Well, you've got some mad programming skills — why not put them to good use for once?

You've got (almost) everything you need on your IOI computer to create the next Facebook or Google. Try making some cool software to kill the time! For example, I made this beautiful Japanese flag during the practice contest of IOI 2019. Of course, you can also make something more abstract if you're into that kind of thing.

This is my favourite option, but if you're looking for something spicier...

Level 3 — Entertaining yourself using other contestants

I'm not saying that you have to get up and talk to the other contestants (not that you can anyway), but you can look around and gather some pretty interesting statistics. Who has the loudest keyboard? Who types the fastest? What is the modal shirt colour?

Alternatively, you can imagine what's going on in the other contestants' heads. Did that sleeping Canadian guy also AK or has he just given up? Which problem is that Slovakian guy next to you hammering away at his keyboard working on now? What about that crying Portuguese guy with the group of scientific committee members gathered around his computer, shaking their heads in disbelief? How is his day going?

Level 4 — Implementing your solutions again in other languages

Ok, I get it — you're no fun and only want to do something related to the IOI. That's perfectly fine and I've got just the activity for you!

Try implementing your solutions in another language! Implementing your solutions again but in Java (or C++ if you're one of those people) is a fun (albeit not very rewarding) challenge. But you know what is a rewarding challenge? Implementing your solutions in Scratch, of course!

("But I don't have access to the online Scratch editor!" You have access to a normal text editor, no?)

Conclusion

These are all the potential activities I could think of. Of course, I've never been able to try them out (but maybe some of you will be able to).

I'd love to hear about other potential activities suggested by you in the comments below!

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Comments Comments (35)
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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +1 Vote: I do not like it

Ahahaha :)

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +170 Vote: I do not like it

You could leave early and then post a cf blog bragging how early you AKed.

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

I suggest to change the constraints of problems and then try to solve them again!

btw, I know what ak means but, what do the A and K stand for?

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

how about making something with your papers!?

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

    I’m not sure but maybe it’s illegal or they think you’re cheating or sth...

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

    That reminds me — some people actually print out their code (because you can do that at the IOI for some reason) to frame or something

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +27 Vote: I do not like it

This article will also be useful for people like me who are not badasses in Computing Olympiads but don't know what to do after they realize they can't solve more subtasks Imao

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +104 Vote: I do not like it

Level 0 — Waking up

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

Write some simple 2-player game (e.g. pong) with AI, have AI you have written control both players, order as many bananas and water through CMS as you can and enjoy the show!

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +16 Vote: I do not like it

Yell out loud: "EZ GAME, Y'ALL NOOBS" while leaving like a toxic gamer.

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +186 Vote: I do not like it

Leave, graph your phone to get the internet access, find every other contestant in Codeforces and send them "gg" in priv.

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +35 Vote: I do not like it

    It looks like someone was doing too many graph problems lately.

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

    Or maybe it's a cipher and there will be a graph problem on IOI? :o

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4 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +38 Vote: I do not like it

I wonder how Benq spent his 2 hours in IOI19 day1

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    4 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +69 Vote: I do not like it

    He read the C++ documentation like a nerd (I saw his computer after the contest)

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      4 years ago, # ^ |
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      how??

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

        You can access C++/Java documentation at the IOI

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

          That I know, I did'nt meant that. I wanted to say that where you there in the contest hall as you said you saw Benq's monitor.

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

            We're allowed to walk around and see other contestants' computers after the contest ends. My teammates and I were curious to see how quickly he AKed and that was the first thing we saw on his screen

            Also, there's no need to tag him in these comments

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

Level 5 — Get Free contribution

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +56 Vote: I do not like it

now we can know what to do by asking Rewinding

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it +82 Vote: I do not like it

    I heard that on the second day, after solving all the problems, he wrote a 2048 to play and wrote the famous Chinese ancient poem "Song of Everlasting Regret" from memory lol

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
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    Actually, he spent less than 3 hours AK-ing IOI.

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3 years ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +137 Vote: I do not like it

Actually, "What to do after you AK a contest" is a well-known problem in China and is classic knowledge for all top contestants. "What to do after AK at IOI" is just a slight modification of the previous problem.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -50 Vote: I do not like it

    stop stigmatizing a community.. I know you are trying to be funny but sometimes take a moment to have some empathy to think that there are also a lot of Chinese people who are not that good at such things but are working hard and may just get an inferior complex by knowing that there are people who are doing a lot better than I am and pressuring them to fit into some ideal version of a Chinese guy that you want to be.

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    3 years ago, # ^ |
      Vote: I like it -25 Vote: I do not like it

    What does AK mean?

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4 months ago, # |
  Vote: I like it +103 Vote: I do not like it

perhaps we should ask orzdevinwang what he chose to do after AK-ing today.

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