Contest of Newbies 2007

[Observer]

Hosted by Universidad de Valladolid Online Judge

Date: 2007-12-29 12:00-16:00 UTC
Website: http://icpcres.ecs.baylor.edu/onlinejudge/
Number of tasks: 6

Introduction:
"Hey! Not a network-flow problem again!!" my friends and I always complain. Why do the tasks here always rely on advanced algorithms? Why don't the problemsetters think about us newbies? We know we can't be quiet. We've got to do something. But how?

In Contest of Newbies, you do not need to know very hard algorithms. All you need here is simply a clear mind and some basic knowledge of programming. For example:
- Basics of Data Structures
- Sorting and Searching
- Simple Maths
- Recursion and Backtracking
- Graph Traversing and Simple Shortest Path Algorithms
- and Elementary Dynamic Programming

Our contest will have 6 tasks. We would expect even beginners to be able to solve at least a couple of them within the 4-hour duration. (Of course there will be one or two not-so-easy tasks to keep more advanced contestants busy~)

We invite everyone interested in programming to join our contest. You won't be disappointed. Please also help us to promote this contest!!!

- Newbie Problemsetters (NPS) @ 2007 -

[sohel]

Looking forward for this contest!!

The previous contests were great.. hope that this one will be similar too.

[Observer]

For those who doesn't know us or hasn't seen our tasks before.. you may want to try out the questions we used in last year's contest.

UVa Online Judge ID 11148 - 11153.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the contest~

[Observer]

Thank you for joining our contest! Sorry for the unclear description of Problem F. I think that is one reason why no one solved all 6 tasks in the contest...

You can now find the problems in UVa Online Judge 11371 - 11376.


I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Prof. Miguel Revilla and Prof. Shahriar Manzoor for their support and help.

[sandy007smarty]

Any hints for problem B, Arranging a Contest?
I am getting TLE. I am basically doing a pruned DFS.

[sohel]

There is already a thread for problem B -
http://online-judge.uva.es/board/viewto ... highlight=
Use the existing one!

A pruned DFS should still get TLE. It depends on how you are pruning it?

[Observer]

Maybe the questions this time is a bit too hard?

I think it is like Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken (?) - if this year's qestions are easy then those in the following year would be harder, and vice versa. So you can expect easier tasks in our next contest. : )

Initially we are having one easier question (in place of Matches), but Raymond said he thought that would make the contest too simple~ I think we shall use that question in our next contest.

[sohel]

Maybe the questions this time is a bit too hard?

Yes .. for newbies.

I managed to encourage some to attend this contest by mentioning that there will be 2 problems that they will be able to solve. But the 2nd problem was much tougher in comparison with the previous years.

But as a whole, the problemset was very nice indeed.

Initially we are having one easier question (in place of Matches), but Raymond said he thought that would make the contest too simple~ I think we shall use that question in our next contest.

And when might that be....

[Observer]

The "question bank" mentioned in Problem B really exists (!!), which contains way more than 6 problems. : )

We thought it would be good to hold our contest in the last Saturday of every year. We believe it is a good time for everyone. We shall hold contests more frequently, like twice a year, if you all will support us and join all our future contests. ~

[Darko]

I really liked the problems, even if I didn't do well during the contest.

You should definitely do it more often.