Sixth Contest of Newbies

[Observer]

Sixth Contest of Newbies
Date: January 29th, 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 12:00 - 16:00 (UTC)
URL: http://uva.onlinejudge.org

Time flies, and it has been two whole years since the last contest of newbies. I am happy to announce that six new programming tasks are now ready, and the Sixth Contest of Newbies is going to be held on UVa Online Judge on January 29th this year.

I hope the quality of problems this time is fine, since all six tasks are written by, erm... me. At least three of the tasks are supposed to be "easy" and solvable by the most elementary techniques.

We look forward to all your participation! Please also help us promote the contest to your friends~

[sohel]

Good to see you back!
About promoting: You can also post the link in TopCoder Forums. It'd be best if you do that 2/3 days before the start of the contest.

[Observer]

Good to see you back!
About promoting: You can also post the link in TopCoder Forums. It'd be best if you do that 2/3 days before the start of the contest.

Hi thanks for your support!!

I don't have a TopCoder account, so...

[sohel]

Okay. I will post the link for you.

[Observer]

Oh wait I've found my old account (Ob_z) at Topcoder Forums... I've put an invitation post there (before I forget about it). Thanks!


Ah yes, for a taste of what our problems are like, here are some highlights of our old tasks:

Easier:
10976 - Fractions Again?!
11152 - Colourful Flowers

Harder:
10817 - Headmaster's Headache
11372 - Arranging a Contest
11374 - Airport Express
11570 - Sudoku without numbers?

Enjoy~


P.S. For those who use Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180175015349038

[Observer]

Just to remind you that the Sixth Contest of Newbies will be held this Saturday!

The UVa site does seem a bit slow so... good luck~

[sohel]

Thank's for the contest. It was great even though the problems were a bit on the harder side.

[Observer]

Here are the "Last-minute hints" given on the Clarification Board (not many contestants have read it though......):

A: Think what happens when the angle is "large".
B: The input numbers are automatically in the correct format.
C: Yes the statement is long... but this may be the easiest problem in the whole set~
------------- This is the dividing line between easier and harder problems. -------------
D: Sometimes you cannot reach the goal even if you are given a six-faced die...
E: I guess the algorithm for this kind of problem is quite standard?
F: This problem is meant to be tedious and troublesome...

The problems are now on the online judge (11909 - 11914).

[mpi]

C: Yes the statement is long... but this may be the easiest problem in the whole set~

It must be, but I can't get it right. Can you give me the output for:

Code: Select all

36 15
49 18 
100 10

Mine is:

Code: Select all

  1? - CLOSER
 36? - FARTHER
  2? - CLOSER
 26? - SAME
 13? - CLOSER
 19? - FARTHER
  3? - CLOSER
 30? - FARTHER
  4? - CLOSER
 20? - CLOSER
  7? - FARTHER
 35? - FARTHER
  5? - CLOSER
 18? - FARTHER
  6? - FARTHER
 34? - CLOSER
 14? - CLOSER
 25? - FARTHER
  8? - CLOSER
 24? - FARTHER
  9? - CLOSER
 32? - FARTHER
 10? - CLOSER
 23? - FARTHER
 11? - SAME
 17? - CLOSER
 15? - YES!!

  1? - CLOSER
 49? - FARTHER
  2? - CLOSER
 37? - FARTHER
  3? - CLOSER
 28? - FARTHER
  4? - CLOSER
 36? - FARTHER
  5? - CLOSER
 42? - FARTHER
  6? - CLOSER
 24? - CLOSER
  8? - FARTHER
 48? - FARTHER
  9? - CLOSER
 31? - SAME
 14? - FARTHER
 47? - FARTHER
  7? - CLOSER
 21? - CLOSER
 15? - SAME
 46? - FARTHER
 10? - CLOSER
 26? - SAME
 12? - SAME
 20? - FARTHER
 11? - CLOSER
 44? - FARTHER
 13? - CLOSER
 41? - FARTHER
 16? - CLOSER
 43? - FARTHER
 17? - CLOSER
 40? - FARTHER
 18? - YES!!

  1? - CLOSER
100? - SAME
 10? - YES!!

Don't mind the indentation, it's because of the formatter of the forum. This is the statement I'm using to actually print the sentences:

Code: Select all

    if (same)
        printf("%3d? - %s\n", g, "SAME");
    else
        printf("%3d? - %s\n", g, closer ? "CLOSER" : "FARTHER");

[Observer]

Why guess 26 in the first case? The distance between 1 and 26 is the SAME as that between 36 and 26, so it is rejected after first two guesses.

[mpi]

Thank you, Observer. Very good point.
I didn't know children could be so smart at guessing games. AC after fixing that.