An almost retired week

TopCoder SRM 777 was the first round of this week (problems, results, top 5 on the left, analysis). The hard problem was way too grungy for a 75-minute round, while easy and medium both had nasty corner cases to deal with. This has led to quite low coding phase scores which were partially compensated by quite high challenge phase scores :) neal_wu and scott_wu got 250 challenge points each and took home the monetary prizes. Well done!

The winter 2020 Petrozavodsk training camp concluded on Friday (results, top 5 on the left). NNSU Almost Retired team enjoyed a really dominant performance, especially compared to other teams who would be coming to the ICPC World Finals in Moscow in June. Congratulations!

Some of those contests will return as Open Cup rounds in the coming weeks.

Finally, Codeforces Round 618 wrapped up the week on Sunday (problems, results, top 5 on the left). MiFaFaOvO, TLE and Radewoosh were the only contestants to solve the hardest interactive problem, and a mere two points separated MiFaFaOvO and TLE at the top. TLE was briefly in first place when he scored a successful challenge two minutes before the end of the round, only to be overtaken by MiFaFaOvO's own challenge with one minute remaining. Congratulations to both!

Thanks for reading, and check back next week.