How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Crazy Pavement
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Lakes
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Heyawacky
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Got through everything fine ... except the Windows!! That was not a type I had done before, and I was completely lost, staring at them for about 30 minutes, with only the first one solved. Can someone please post some hints or tricks for Windows, or maybe step through one? I would really appreciate that!

I'll try to post something about Windows tomorrow, unless Swaroop is interested in doing so.

Hi, I am not sharing the steps for the puzzles in the contest right now, because i believe if you know the tricks, then you can solve it on your own. These are all easy puzzles.
So I have shared the common tricks that one can use to solve Windows Puzzles. I have posted a pdf on my blog (http://swaroopg92.blogspot.com/2016/01/puzzle-ramayan-2015-16-shading-round.html) or you can directly look at pdf with this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1TteOwGbxHcHNlWkR0UjFUMEU/view?us...

Give a try using these steps, and if you still facing issues, then comment here, will post the steps for solving the contest puzzles.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Windows
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Heyawacky
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Thumbs up for the instructionless variants and some good rarer puzzle types with nicely flowing solving. Seems I find windows puzzles relaxing to solve. Nice to have a set of puzzles I can finish in the time too.

OK, I'll take a look at those, thanks! And I forgot to say earlier that other than my complete bewilderment at Windows, I did really enjoy the puzzles, especially the variations. Nice job!!

OK, I looked at your Tricks and I get it now: because you cannot create islands, you can never have a checkerboard pattern (Trick 2 ... and hence Trick 1 follows as a special case). Wow, that makes it easy indeed. Now I know. Thanks!

Thanks for your feedback. I am glad you enjoyed it.

Welcome. These tests are indeed planned to make one familiar with new types and tricks.

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Crazy Pavement
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Nice puzzle set, I thouroughly enjoyed all the puzzles which I solved within the time frame.

Special thanks to DEB MOHANTY. It's only due to his idea of solving it in the "PAINT" made me try and attempt the test without any botheration and difficulties reagrding printing, which I faced during my earlier puzzle tests(since I don't own, and have easy access to a printer).

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Paint By Number
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Heyawacky
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Password removed and solutions appended.

Thank you every one for their feedback. Congrats to EKBM, nyoroppyi and deu for top 3 spots.
Congrats to Prasanna, Rohan and Amit for finishing the test.

Most of the comments were "Just right or easy puzzles". Yes, it was expected. This test was meant to be easy, and it is clearly visible as 72 Solvers completed the test.
But I was expecting few more Indians to complete the test, that was little shocking. A very nice performance by Ashish and Kishore.

I would post more detail about puzzles, selection and creation as separate post soon. But till then, if any one was struggling with any particular puzzle, please post a comment here, so that I can help you solve it.

Thanks to LMI for giving me chance to author a contest. Also thanks to Branko for testing and his feedback.

Just opened up the no-password PB and it appeared to have two copies of all the puzzles (20 pages total)

The last 10 pages are solutions to the puzzles in first 10 pages