Participating in contests
Contest types
The following contests are held on Yandex Contest:
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By participant type: individual, team, and mixed.
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By access type:
- Open — Any participant who meets the contest requirements can participate.
- Closed – The contest is held for pre-selected participants. If you are not invited by the organizers, you cannot participate in it.
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By start time:
- Real — All participants start and finish the contest at the same time.
- Virtual – The competition has a flexible start date. As a rule, contest problems must be solved within a limited amount of time. The results are ranked by the amount of time spent solving problems, making it as if the other competitors are participating in the contest at the same time as you.
Contests can also be held without time limits for trial rounds, tests for training courses, certification exams, and so on.
Contest steps
Contests usually run according to this plan:
- The organizers create a contest and publish an announcement on Yandex Contest(https://contest.yandex.com/contest-list/) and relevant resources. Participant selection begins.
- You register as a contest participant. If there are special requirements for participants, the organizers check the information you provided and decide whether to accept you as a contest participant.
- After the contest begins, you solve problems, checking them on the testing server. Solutions are checked automatically. Depending on the contest rules, you can see the preliminary or final results of the review.
- After the end of the contest, the jury sums up the results and produces the final tournament table. The winner is determined according to the contest rules.
This structure is used for both individual and team contests. If a contest is going to be run differently, the organizers will make an announcement.
Contest rules
The contest rules are determined by the organizers. Organizers can use a standard sets of rules or create their own.
The following rules are most often used in contests:
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The winner is the participant who correctly solved the most problems.
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If multiple participants solve the same number of problems, the participant with the least penalty time will be ranked highest.
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The penalty time for each participant starts at zero. For each solved problem, the time that elapsed from the start of the contest until the correct solution was submitted is added to the participant's penalty time. If the successful attempt was preceded by multiple unsuccessful attempts to solve the same problem, 20 minutes are added to the penalty time for each of them. No penalty time is accrued for unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem the participant ultimately failed to solve.
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A problem is considered solved if the solution passes all the tests without exceeding the limits for time taken and memory used.
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The participant with the most points wins.
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Each problem is worth a certain number of points.
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Each error type costs a certain number of points.
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Participants start with zero points. For each problem solved, they earn the corresponding number of points. Each unsuccessful attempt reduces the participant's points by the “cost” of the detected error, though the total number of points cannot be less than zero.
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A problem is considered solved if the solution passes all the tests without exceeding the limits for time taken and memory used.
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The participant with the most points wins.
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For each problem, a rule is set for the number of points awarded depending on the tests passed. Each submitted solution is checked against all stipulated tests.
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The participant with the most points wins.
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The jury evaluates each submitted solution and determines how many points to award.
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The winner is the participant who correctly solved the most problems.
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If multiple participants solve the same number of problems, the participant with the least penalty time will be ranked highest.
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The penalty time for each participant starts at zero.The amount of penalty time accrued for a problem depends on how the participant chose to have their solution checked. The way each solution is checked is selected once for each problem:
- Open — Each submitted solution is checked by the full set of system tests, and the participant receives a verdict immediately.
For each problem solved, the time that elapsed from the start of the contest until the time the correct solution was submitted is added to the participant's penalty time. If the successful attempt was preceded by multiple unsuccessful attempts to solve the same problem, 20 minutes are added to the penalty time for each of them. No penalty time is accrued for unsuccessful attempts to solve a problem the participant ultimately failed to solve.
- Blind — Each submitted solution is first checked by a pre-announced set of intermediate tests. If successful, the solution is provisionally counted as correct, and it is impossible to edit it after that point. Once the competition is over, the solutions provisionally counted as correct are checked by the full set of system tests, and only then is the final verdict made.
Problems successfully solved blindly reduce the participant's penalty time by seconds, which is calculated by the formula , where is the duration of the contest in minutes; is the number of participants who did not solve the problem; and is the total number of participants in the contest.
If a solution was sent blindly and did not pass the intermediate tests, no penalty time is accrued for it.
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Problems are considered solved when the solution passes all system tests or intermediate tests without exceeding the limits for time taken and memory used.
Languages and compilers used
The list of all programming languages and compilers supported by Yandex Contest can be viewed on the Compiler settings page. The test server configuration is also displayed in the tab.
If other languages or compiler versions are used in the competition, an announcement is made by the contest organizers.