Mock CCC

[A.J]

Yea, it's that time of year again.

This year, Brian Bi (bbi5291 on compsci.ca) and I put together a mock CCC (senior...sorry that I couldn't make a junior this year) as practice for stage 1.

So, if you wanted some extra practice for the CCC, feel free to download this and try it at home. I would advise you to try recreating the 'CCC' environment as much as possible (i.e. give yourself 3 hours, do it with friends at school, follow the rules , etc...). Yes, I didn't make all the questions (like last year), as the person who had helped me come up with the questions last year graduated, and I also have Math Club to worry about...

Also, I would appreciate it if you don't discuss these problems here (as there are people in my school, and other schools, writing this).

Finally, if you feel confident enough about your programs, feel free to send them to me to amleshjayakumar at yahoo.ca .

Hope this helps.

[chopperdudes]

is it possible for you to post some test cases? and CCC is next week, i think it would be more helpful if we can discuss solutions to these problems (or else it would be like... oh i can't do them, great, and i wouldn't know how to do them before CCC comes around).

[A.J]

I'll post the test-cases later on this week (most likely Friday).

As for the discussion, I am going to say no for now, as there are some school's that are yet to write the contest (I need the green light from Brian too). So, this Friday you'll be able to discuss the solutions on here. However, I will be posting official solutions and programs for these problems on Saturday (or maybe Friday itself).

Depending on how many people are actually interested, I might move this date back a few days.

Also, any feedback is much appreciated.

[chopperdudes]

oh was this made to be a real contest? i.e. not just wolburn/compsci? then yeah that would make sense, but please do discuss the solutions before the actual CCC.

do you think these questions mimic the difficulty of actual CCC senior questions? i don't know cuz from my impression senior might be harder, but it could be cuz the last time i saw a CCC question was... quite a long time ago.

i was able to tell the approach to 3 and 4 immediate after reading the question, granted, they probably aren't the optimal solutions, but with the low test case limits, they'll work. don't know bout the actual CCC though. 5 will take some thinking (which i didn't rly have time to do yet...) but i guess i'll be really happy if i can get 4 questions for the actual CCC and part marks for the 5th.

[A.J]

I will definitely be releasing the solutions before the actual CCC. However, the WCC is made to be slightly harder than the actual CCC Stage 1 (however, some people might think otherwise). I believe that solving the first 4 questions perfectly on the WCC is quite a good mark. Also, you can email me your solutions if you believe to have solved a question, and I'll mark it for you.

Last year's CCC was probably a bit 'harder' than usual (though it was still pretty standard). The CCC from two years ago, however, was extremely easy for a stage 1 (and consequently, the cutoff for stage 2 was a 66/75, which is unusually high).

Though, I shouldn't be the one speaking, as I am not too experienced/good at CS. Brian should be the one measuring difficulties here .

[bbi5291]

A.J @ Wed Feb 17, 2010 11:01 pm wrote:

I'll post the test-cases later on this week (most likely Friday).

As for the discussion, I am going to say no for now, as there are some school's that are yet to write the contest (I need the green light from Brian too). So, this Friday you'll be able to discuss the solutions on here. However, I will be posting official solutions and programs for these problems on Saturday (or maybe Friday itself).

Depending on how many people are actually interested, I might move this date back a few days.

Also, any feedback is much appreciated.

Woburn holds its practice CCC on Friday from 15:00 to 18:00 (GMT -5:00). As long as posting of testcases/solutions/discussion doesn't start before then, I won't mind.

As for the difficulty of the Mock CCC, I will say that the first four problems are probably harder than their counterparts in the actual CCC 2009. As for S5, I think more than two competitors in Canada would be able to solve it completely (that's how many solved S5 on CCC 2009, "Wireless"); it's a more well-known problem. Overall, this is pretty tough, and if this were the actual contest, I'd estimate the stage 2 cutoff between 45 and 50. (It could be higher if more competitors would put more effort into writing partial solutions, an indispensable skill at IOI.)

[DtY]

So the first four questions are overall harder than the actual questions have been in the past, but the fifth was easier?

And where can I find the guidelines for the competition?

[A.J]

You mean for the CCC? Well, in that case, all the details can be found here: http://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/computing.html

[bbi5291]

Not sure if the fifth problem is easier. It's more code, but the problem itself is well-known, so that very smart people would probably have some idea of how to solve it already. You can get partial marks by making some clever observations.

If we give you a contest easier than the real CCC, you'll get complacent

I'm surprised that the rules for stage 1 are not online, but the basics are:
* The contest must be taken in three consecutive hours.
* You must work alone (i.e., you may not communicate with anyone but your proctor during the three hours)
* You can use any languages you want, except for symbolic computation languages (like Maple). You can use different languages for different problems if you wish.
* You can use any written/printed materials you wish, but may not access any electronic materials (except for a language reference, or possibly to email your solutions to your proctor, or something like that)
* Your output should match the format shown in the samples exactly, except that you are not required to print prompts.

[chopperdudes]

okay in an attempt to do the questions, for number 3, are there gaps in the people numbered? i.e. will there be something like.. 1 -> 7, 1 -> 9, instead of 1 -> 2, 1 -> 3?

if it's the latter it'll make the code abit less of a hassle.

[Zren]

For Q5, what way are we to end the test cases?

From the input description:

Quote:

The input is terminated by two zeros in place of the board size.

and from the test data it assumes we get the numTestCases first:

Quote:

5
5 5
7
XX.XX
X.X.X
.XXX.
X.X.X
XX.XX
5 5
.XX.X
.....

[saltpro15]

bbi5291 @ Thu Feb 18, 2010 wrote:

* You can use any languages you want, except for symbolic computation languages (like Maple). You can use different languages for different problems if you wish.

I'd like to add that if you qualify for stage 2 the only acceptable languages are Java/C++/Pascal.

[A.J]

@Zren - Sorry about that...but follow what's written in the IO specs (i.e. end of input is indiciated by two '0 0').

[bbi5291]

saltpro15 @ Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:59 am wrote:

bbi5291 @ Thu Feb 18, 2010 wrote:

* You can use any languages you want, except for symbolic computation languages (like Maple). You can use different languages for different problems if you wish.

I'd like to add that if you qualify for stage 2 the only acceptable languages are Java/C++/Pascal.

No, Java's not allowed (although it's allowed at USACO). CCC stage 2 follows the IOI convention strictly: C/C++/Pascal only.

[DtY]

The last CCC question from last year (wireless), the last line of sample input is "5115", but the grid is only three tall, so that falls out of bounds.

On the diagram, it's drawn at point (1,5), rather than point (5,1). Am I misreading the input, or is that a misprint?

http://cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/computing/2009/stage1/seniorEn.pdf