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International Conference on Informatics in Secondary Schools - Evolution and Perspectives

ISSEP 2010: Teaching Fundamentals Concepts of Informatics pp 72–85Cite as

The Difficulty of Programming Contests Increases

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 5941))

Abstract

In this paper we give a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the difficulty of programming contests in past years. We analyze task topics in past competition tasks, and also analyze an entire problem set in terms of required algorithm efficiency. We provide both subjective and objective data on how contestants are getting better over the years and how the tasks are getting harder. We use an exact, formal method based on Item Response Theory to analyze past contest results.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Michal Forišek

Authors
  1. Michal Forišek
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ETH Zürich, Informationstechnologie und Ausbildung, CAB F 16, Universitätstrasse 6,, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Juraj Hromkovič

  2. ETH Zürich, Informationstechnologie und Ausbildung, CAB F 13.1, Universitätstrasse 6,, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Richard Královič

  3. Foundations of Computer Science and Computer Science Education Group, Chair of Algorithm Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science, Technische Universität Dortmund,, Otto-Hahn-Str. 14, 44227, Dortmund, Germany

    Jan Vahrenhold

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Forišek, M. (2010). The Difficulty of Programming Contests Increases. In: Hromkovič, J., Královič, R., Vahrenhold, J. (eds) Teaching Fundamentals Concepts of Informatics. ISSEP 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5941. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11376-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11376-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-11375-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-11376-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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