Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
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Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
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Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#2Yeah ... they had major issues. First off, the submit system was flaky (didn't work with common browser configs ... e.g. on my macbook pro with Safari). They had a 6 minute time limit, which caused a lot of problems. By the time someone realized their browser config didn't work, it was too late to try another combo. The questions were not worded precisely in some cases. And some people were cheating like crazy ... putting up their code/test cases for other people to use.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#3Yeah ... they had major issues. First off, the submit system was flaky (didn't work with common browser configs ... e.g. on my macbook pro with Safari). They had a 6 minute time limit, which caused a lot of problems. By the time someone realized their browser config didn't work, it was too late to try another combo. The questions were not worded precisely in some cases. And some people were cheating like crazy ... pu…
I didn't quite get the 6 minute time limit. For instance, I coded up one of their problems using a bruteforce algorithm. It worked perfectly with the sample test case they provided. But when I tried it on the their time-limited test case, lo-and-behold, it took a long time. So ... what the heck was the point of that? Since we had 6 minutes to upload the answer, I can't really convert my solution to something much faster in that time period. Should I have coded a faster solution from the get-go? Well .. that isn't clear cut as we had 3 hours to code 3 problems. Oh well. I had fun coding and I have a lot more respect for non-us programmers. Some of the kids coding on the contest were absolutely amazing and far better coders than me.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#4Yeah ... they had major issues. First off, the submit system was flaky (didn't work with common browser configs ... e.g. on my macbook pro with Safari). They had a 6 minute time limit, which caused a lot of problems. By the time someone realized their browser config didn't work, it was too late to try another combo. The questions were not worded precisely in some cases. And some people were cheating like crazy ... pu…
I made mistakes, which were my own doing like retrieving my personal input data for the contest answer before I started coding. I got pretty frustrated when it said my time limit had expired 10 minutes afterwards. I should of read the rules more carefully about the submission process, but even then the rules were not very clear.
What they need to do in future is have a better user interface that warns the user that they will only have six minutes to submit their answer after retrieving their input and then include a javascript countdown clock telling the user how much time they have remaining.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#5Most of the details are from this Quora post: http://www.quora.com/Andrew-Brown-2/Facebook-Hacker-Cup-Reso...
Am I the only one who thinks Quora should only host questions and answers? I hope this isn't part of a growing trend to have what are essentially blog posts on Quora.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#6Yeah ... they had major issues. First off, the submit system was flaky (didn't work with common browser configs ... e.g. on my macbook pro with Safari). They had a 6 minute time limit, which caused a lot of problems. By the time someone realized their browser config didn't work, it was too late to try another combo. The questions were not worded precisely in some cases. And some people were cheating like crazy ... pu…
I didn't quite get the 6 minute time limit. For instance, I coded up one of their problems using a bruteforce algorithm. It worked perfectly with the sample test case they provided. But when I tried it on the their time-limited test case, lo-and-behold, it took a long time. So ... what the heck was the point of that? Since we had 6 minutes to upload the answer, I can't really convert my solution to something much fas…
I am glad you enjoyed it but I don't think you should stop. Try facebook.com/puzzlemaster instead. The questions are slightly similar. The community there is quite helpful and they have been doing it for 2 years. The Puzzle Master (whoever that maybe in Facebook) is quite responsive when it comes to telling the users of errors.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#7Most of the details are from this Quora post: http://www.quora.com/Andrew-Brown-2/Facebook-Hacker-Cup-Reso... Am I the only one who thinks Quora should only host questions and answers? I hope this isn't part of a growing trend to have what are essentially blog posts on Quora.
It looks like both the linked post and the quora post are complaining about problems with the qualification round. There is no mention of the fact that the following round was in fact suspended entirely after the submission server fell over. There were still confusing problem descriptions, incorrect examples and buggy submission pages.
It's a shame because it really had the potential to be a fun competition if it had just been pulled off more smoothly. The questions were interesting and the competition format allowed for the use of pretty much any method of solving problems. The 6 minute limit was annoying at first but I came to see it as part of the competition. It creates an interesting tradeoff between development speed and correctness and allows people to solve the problem in any way they like whilst still enforcing efficient solutions. The bounds on all the variables in the problem are given so it is possible to test your solution on the worst case scenario before downloading the input.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#8Lol ... am I the only one that remembers a test back in 1st grade that said the same thing and everyone in the room failed.
Rule 1: Read all the directions first. Rule 2: Jump up and down on your head Rule 3: Generate a proof which demonstrates that [insert random equation here] ... ... ... Rule 50: See rule #1 ... hand this paper in to complete the assignment within the first X minutes and you get an A. (or something to that extent)
While I gotta agree that the communication wasn't clear, part of me wants to be the grouchy teacher which says "the lesson is this: read the dang directions". This guy just forgot the 1st part which was: read the directions first!
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#9Lol ... am I the only one that remembers a test back in 1st grade that said the same thing and everyone in the room failed. Rule 1: Read all the directions first. Rule 2: Jump up and down on your head Rule 3: Generate a proof which demonstrates that [insert random equation here] ... ... ... Rule 50: See rule #1 ... hand this paper in to complete the assignment within the first X minutes and you get an A. (or somethin…
While I agree that a lot of the confusion could've been avoided by reading more carefully, part of the problem was the dissemination of information. Facebook did a really poor job of this unfortunately, as all of the information was in multiple locations, and was not at all redundant. For example, the initial rules were in the FAQs, some updates were posted in the main group (Hacker Cup), and then other updates were posted in the Hacker Cup Qualification event page. So if you wanted a complete picture, you needed to check all three. And if the answer wasn't there, you weren't going to get one, as they weren't responding to questions at all as far as I could tell (and for fairly good reason - if you didn't filter out the non-official posts, the page was nigh unreadable).
The bigger problem in my book, however, was the issues with the submission system. I tried both Firefox and Chrome, and couldn't get the "download input" link to function properly (I tried, left clicking, "save as"-ing, opening in a new tab, etc.). Add the 6-minute time limit to this, and it was pretty bad. Six minutes to get the download to work, run your code on it, and then get back to the page, paste your output, and upload. Oh, and good luck eyeballing your output to make sure you pasted it correctly -- the window you paste into wasn't resize-able, and every line wrapped, so it looked like an utter mess.
Don't get me wrong, I sound rather negative in this post, but I love the idea, and look forward to the next attempt at it. I was just somewhat disappointed to see how the process went. And to be honest, I really wish they'd do away with the 6 minute time limit, and add a time limit for how long your code is allowed to take during execution. Though I suppose they have to restrict the languages then. Perhaps a "can you finish the problem within the 3 hour time limit" is sufficient for this competition then. As it is, knowing when to optimize, and when not to takes too long to figure out in the 3 hour time limit, so you end up taking a shot in the dark as to when you should be submitting your code.
Hopefully Facebook learns from these mistakes, and comes back with a competition that is just that much better. Also, if you're interested in the problem solving for this competition, check out the Puzzle Master. It's great fun as well.
Re: Facebook’s Hacker Cup Called A Failure
#10Lol ... am I the only one that remembers a test back in 1st grade that said the same thing and everyone in the room failed. Rule 1: Read all the directions first. Rule 2: Jump up and down on your head Rule 3: Generate a proof which demonstrates that [insert random equation here] ... ... ... Rule 50: See rule #1 ... hand this paper in to complete the assignment within the first X minutes and you get an A. (or somethin…
Does Facebook only want to recruit people who careful read the directions, even when they're unclear and scattered over several different pages? Maybe they do - maybe they can afford to - but they'll get a lot of false negative that way.
I read all the FAQ stuff beforehand, so I thought I was prepared. I didn't know that there were additional rules/instructions when the contest started, because no one told me there were. So the first thing I did was read all three puzzles and download the test data for them. I actually solved the third puzzle and submitted my solution inside six minutes anyway, but I ran out of time on the first one (still submitted my solution after six minutes), and I didn't even bother with the second one because their sloppily worded FAQ didn't make it clear that getting through the qualifier round was competitive and that I needed to complete all three to have a chance at advancing. Their wording wasn't technically incorrect, but it gave the impression that they were just trying to filter out people who couldn't solve a simple problem.
I am pretty sure I'm the kind of person they were trying to capture with this competition, and, well, they failed to capture me.