FAQ
This FAQ covers virtually all of questions that have been answered many many times before, so please make sure you have read it before using this site. Most of these content have been adopted from CodeChef.
SEB Setup files
The SEB client config provided for SEB contests are tightly coupled with the versions. Please use these set-up files.
- For Windows : download
- For Mac : download
- For Linux : There is no official support for linux currently. You can try using Wine
Instructions to take a contest in SEB can be found here
General FAQs
How does HPOJ test whether my solution is correct or not?
Your code is tested by a computer automatically, not by a human being, and you have to write your code accordingly.
For each problem, HPOJ will have one or more input files, each according to the specifications mentioned in the problem statement, and corresponding correct output files. HPOJ will run your program on each of the input files by redirecting the standard input stream to an input file, and the standard output stream to another file. The output generated by your program must match the correct output exactly in order to be judged correct.
Some consequences of this:
- If your program starts by printing ‘Enter the number’ and the problem does not tell you to do so, then since this is not part of the correct output, you will be never be judged correct regardless of what the rest of your program does.
- As all that matters is that the output files match, it makes no difference at all at what point in your program’s execution that this output is written. So there is no need to read all of the input before starting output; it is much more common to just print out each result as you are reading through the input.
- If you use any method other than using the standard input and output streams - for example, using command line arguments, reading from a file, opening up some sort of dialog box, or otherwise - you will never be judged correct.
How should I test my program?
The best way of testing your program is doing so in exactly the same way that HPOJ does. Create an input file (for example, in.txt). Then run your program from the command line, using < and > to redirect the streams. For example:
java test < in.txt > out.txt
or
test.exe < in.txt > out.txt
Your output will then be in the out.txt file, so you can check if it is correct. Often people forget to print a new line between test cases, but this is easily avoided if you use this method of testing.
What am I allowed to post as a comment?
Comments are a mechanism for the users to interact with the problem setting panel, the admins and other users to get their queries answered. Hence, it is important that the users are responsible while posting a comment so that those who answer the comments have to go through only meaningful and less number of comments. The likelihood of getting a reply to your comment also gets increased in such a scenario.
We have observed that a huge number of comments are being posted during our contests which are not relevant and could be avoided. It makes the life of our problem setters very difficult as they have to scan through all such comments to reply to only the ones which are relevant.
Hence we have come up with a comment posting guidelines which we expect each one of us to adhere to.
During a live/running contest:
- You cannot share your logic, answer, input, code, hint, algorithm, etc.
- You cannot share the run-time or space complexity of your solution.
- You cannot ask hints to solve the problem.
- You cannot ask more test cases.
- You cannot ask for help for finding bugs in your code.
- Do not comment if it is absolutely not necessary to do so.
- Read all the previously posted comments for a problem before posting your comment to avoid asking the same query twice.
- You can post questions regarding any clarification in the problem statement. However, please read the problem statements multiple times before posting your query. We take great care in trying to come up with unambiguous problem statements and most of the times it has been found the query asked is answered by a careful reading of the problem statement.
- Your comment should be relevant to the page on which you are posting it.
- Any question or query that is not relevant to the problem or the page that you are on, you should not post it as a comment there.
- Posting of any filthy, inappropriate or abusive language is strictly prohibited.
- Spamming the comments section will not be accepted under any circumstances.
How does the time limit work?
Your program must read, process, and output the result for an input file within the specified time limit. An input file can contain a single test case or multiple test cases depending on the problem setter’s discretion. A test case will be of the format mentioned in the problem statement.
This means, if the input file contains multiple test cases, your code must complete ALL of these within time limit specified. If the time limit is 2 seconds, and there are 1000 test cases, your program shouldn’t be taking 2 second per test case - it needs to run all 1000 cases in under 2 seconds.
There can be multiple input test files too, each containing single or multiple test cases. The time limit is applied to each test file. That means If the time limit is 2 seconds, and there are 5 test files, your program could take upto 10 seconds to execute - it needs to run all 5 test files in under 10 seconds. However, it is to be noted, that the number of test files is not mentioned anywhere and is agnostic to the user.
What are Status codes?
The hyperlinked page explains diffrent types of status codes and common runtime errors.
Contact
If you have any suggestions on how we can make HPOJ better, or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Just contact us at codeatamrita@cb.amrita.edu