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?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

I don't understand why letters are used for columns: using numbers seems like a better option. Enjoyable puzzles, and a suitable difficulty level this time!

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?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

Very nice test as usual! Thanks for putting this together.

I'm not a huge fan of the magnets answer key because you have to alternate between holding shift for + and not holding shift for -. Could we use P and N instead?

Favorite Puzzles:

4 Skyscrapers - I like the almost symmetric grid.
12 Anglers - The 2x2 blocks of fish made the solve interesting.
19 Skylines - This had a lot of loop / skyscraper interaction.
22 Magnetic Fields - I like this variation a lot.

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?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Skyscrapers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys could have been better
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

Too hard period.

Favourites: Magnets 10x10, Skylines 8x8, Skyscrapers 7x7

Thanks Priyam and Prasanna!

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?	Magnets
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys could have been better
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

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?	Slitherlink
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

Had some trouble with big hashi. Also hoped to finish the set and it was close. In general nice and logical puzzles.

But the points distribution was a bit off for me.

Edited by TiiT 2020-04-18 8:32 PM

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?	Skylines
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys were horrible
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

Maybe it’s just me, but I find answer keys with letters for the column numbering (instead of numbers) really painful.
And I cannot see the point of having to put letters instead of digits.
The digits are ordered, and the letters are thrown on the keyboard randomly, so I have to put one hand on the grid to check the alignment with the top letter, and the other hand on the keyboard, trembling from one letter to another, eyes staring wildely to find the good letter.

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?	Skylines
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

Excellent, entertaining themed puzzles as usual. No where near enough time as usual (for me--I have never been a speedy solver).

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

This was fabulous! Priyam, you don't look like a first time author with this episode. Kudos to you and Prasanna for this. Puzzles were on the difficult side but thoroughly enjoyable. Magnets (17) spoiled my day as I got stuck for 15+ minutes and ultimately broke it.

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?	Average
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Tents
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys could have been better
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Too hard.

Entering answer keys were a chore.In particular, Hashi's was very difficult to enter and I kept putting more digits than needed in the answer key due to wrong interpretation until I figured how it works.Maybe specific clues can be marked above by a letter and asking the number of clues connected to them would have been better ?!

Also having so many left out puzzles is no fun when one looks to complete the set.Overall an okay contest with too many difficult puzzles than needed.

Thanks Prasanna and Priyam for the contest.

Thank you so much, for your kind words, Harmeet!
As a first time author it is very encouraging to hear..
Really glad you liked the Puzzles :)

Much thanks to everyone else too for the honest feedback on puzzle quality! Much appreciated :)

Edited by priyambhushan 2020-04-19 11:17 PM

The quality of the puzzles were Awesome. I really liked the logic of each and every puzzle. The test was quite hard but enjoyable. It does not seems to be your first round Priyam :) Prasanna is one of the best authors so no need to mention him ;) .

unfortunately i solved 2 magnet puzzles and did not type the answer key. 14 points less from the total score :(

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

Very nice puzzles.

Anglers were all very enjoyable. The exploratory puzzles were very good too. The other 10 pointers were difficult but had very nice solve paths.

Magnets were 2, 6 and 10 points. Which two added up to 14?

The 4 pointer exploratory one and the 10 pointer classic one..

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?	Magnetic Fields
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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?	Too many pages / too large grids

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Magnetic Fields
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

As a lockdown exception, I participated in this round. Superb puzles. Quality and logic was amazing.
Of course as others have already stated, its definitely hard round. I broke skyscraper 7 pointer and Hashi 10 pointer at the end. Could have been 17 points more.
Didn't get time to even touch Magnets.

My favourites were:
Skylines and Magnetic Fields

Awesome Job Priyam.
Quality was excellent though difficulty was hard.
Thoroughly Enjoyed.

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?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

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?	Magnetic Fields
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many medium difficult puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
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

Fantastic puzzles, great quality.
Laptop shut down midway for some reason,and wasted ample time to boot it up again.
The difficulty level was pretty high for me, as even the medium pointers took too long to fall.
Loved the anglers 8 pointer especially and the magnets set. Slitherlink was a good solve as well.
I feel answer key for magnets can be kept as P,N rather than +,-.
Thank you Priyam and Prasanna !

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?	Skyscrapers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

I am a beginner and my opinion is not so important for the general good of the game, because I would never became a representative player. Also I am not a fast person in any aspect so probably I will never be a fast solver, even let assume experience in the end will give me some improvement. Still, I feel most of the tests are build on a difficult or very difficult side and the target diistribution of puzzles (mentioned in the feedback form - 50% easy, 40% medium, 10% hard) is not respected in most cases. Maybe I misjudge the difficulty and maybe this kind of tests are excellent for the top solvers - which is good in perspective of National & World Championship.
Did you tought of a B-division kind of? I mean something like a preparation stage for medium or beginners solvers? Maybe this is not a purpose of this project, in this case my question is pointless. And I am not an Indian player, maybe this is also biasing me and is not relevant. I am just curious how you, the experienced players, see this matter.

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?	Skyscrapers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
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

I

Edited by BogdanG 2020-04-22 8:42 PM

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?	Anglers
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Answer keys could have been better
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

Very nice set of puzzles! Can't think of a puzzle I didn't enjoy.

I just think some answer keys could have been friendlier:
-Admittedly tents uses number clues but I still think number keys would have been better.
-Hashi keys were of different lengths but the red border for each line goes away after (I guess) you input the minimum length (for example, 6 for the large one). I was typing looking at the screen and got a bit panicky as I thought I had overly long answers. Also, not requiring zeroes might be an improvement, I corrected a row with an extra imagined zero at the last second.
-Allowing P&N for magnets would be nice.

Hopefully I don't come across as nitpicky, as I really liked the puzzles. My favorites are 12, 18 & 20. Thanks Priyam and Prasanna! :)

Firstly, we value opinions and feedback of all the solvers here and if anything encourage more of them. So thank you very much for your thoughts.

It is generally difficult to know how easy to go and how much to go towards the other side. Just for example, define what a "beginner" should be able to solve here. Any definition you give will probably be discouraging for someone who solved less than that. So we can't possibly say that we target that a beginner should be able to solve this many puzzles - everyone is different in their development.

So the most important thing we target is - there should be something for everyone while also being a bit of a challenge for the top solvers. What a first time solver should aim for is to solve what they can, get some points and then solve the remaining puzzles outside of the 90 minutes to prepare for next time. Look at Round 3 vs this round or Round 1. Round 3 was objectively easier than both the other rounds, but there are many beginners who still got around the same score. The target distributions and feedback on difficulty are probably more useful for our authors, many of whom are also new and learning as the solvers are, to see how their round is received by different people.

So what is the solution? Well, not many do it but we do encourage asking for solve paths and tips for the puzzles after the contest too. Its a bit difficult to prepare full walkthroughs but I am sure there are enough people on the forum to answer about the next step or approach if someone is stuck on a particular puzzle - these are the discussions that should ideally dominate the forum over whether a contest is suitable for an audience or not, in my opinion.

Rather than try to make contests easier and easier which becomes a never ending endeavor, I would prefer letting the authors of Puzzle Ramayan, some newer and some experienced, to express themselves within slightly broader parameters, and instead focus on teaching solvers who are interested in seeing the logical paths of these and other puzzles and helping them raise their level through that. Some comments do make it seem like we are taking the puzzles away once the 90 minutes are done which I'd just like to remind everyone, isn't the case :) We keep a restricted forum for the contest duration for a reason. We are here to help solvers once the contest is done for them too.

Eventually this round and other PR rounds should also work as worthy qualifiers to the Indian Championships - which have both sprint rounds as well as more think-y rounds. We will surely consider all the feedback here. Thank you and everyone else for providing it.