I have posted one practice puzzle here:
https://logic-masters.de/Raetselportal/Raetsel/zeigen.php?id=0003HD

Questions about Matchsticks:

* Can we move a matchstick to create a negative sign?
* Is the given spacing necessarily maintained? For example, if we started with 77, could we move one matchstick to get 0 (the top of the left 7 to the bottom right, and then squish the two digits together)?

Mathematical operators including negative signs are not allowed.

Only digits as shown in the image are allowed ( 2 matches high and one match stick wide).

In the final answer the digits cannot touch each other. Spacing between the final digits is not important.

Also all the matchsticks need to be used. None of them can be discarded or overlapped.

I hope this answers your questions.

Grizix: Are the answer keys ok for you in this PR episode?

With Matchsticks, sometimes you can get a lower number by moving less than N matchsticks. I assume this is ok?

For example: N=2, start="70". With 1 move I can get to 18, but if 2 matches have to be in new places then the answer will be higher.

Exactly N matchsticks need to be moved. Solution obtained by moving "Less than N matchsticks" will be invalid. I hope this clarifies.

Thanks for the test!
Like last year, I tore through the Word half and was seriously bogged down by the Casual section, especially Curve Data.
The gimmick in #5 Mastermind was beautiful, the solving path of the hard Scrabble with the H's was also nice.
The continuous theme of easy, medium, hard deserves praise.
I'm not sure if #3 Matchsticks was prone to hacking.
I bypassed the entire solve by realizing that there are 23 matches and the smallest number you can make with that is 1888.

Wondering if the last puzzle's answer key was intentional :)

Loved this set, but obviously biased due to my love of Word puzzles.
Look forward to Casual and Word PR 2021 already!

Edited by tamz29 2020-05-22 4:33 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?	Word Division
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

Lovely puzzles, and lovely theme! All the puzzles were thoroughly logical which I very much appreciated.

In my opinion, the curve data puzzles were a little overrated, as I finished the set in a little over 3 minutes. But maybe I just got lucky.

Thanks for the feedback Tawan.

The 3rd matchstick puzzle was open to hacking and we were wondering whether to reduce the points for the puzzle. In the end the points were kept high to reward those who got the trick.

The answer key for the last puzzle was not deliberate, but since it turned up like that I thought I might as well sign off with that :)

Thanks.
Curve Data and Matchsticks are high variance puzzles. Curve data especially benefits from having a good intuition about the type.

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?	Double Cross
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?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Matchsticks
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

Really fun - the theme was fantastic!

Favorites:
3 Matchsticks
5 Mastermind
10 Letter Weights
14 Letter Scrabble
17 Double Cross
18 Double Cross

Thanks Walker, I will be publishing the remaining puzzles which complete the sets of 3 theme after the competition is over.

I always dread this round most in the PR series (mostly something I should work on improving), but this was super fun, and also had a very neat theme. I loved how the thematic sets represented the correct difficulty too for the most part.

I got in my own head with the HARD Curve Data. I should have done it much sooner and omitted a key possibility visually which I shouldn't have. I came back to it with a fresh mind at the end and immediately saw it. Really dumb of me. Also, I have a phobia of Masterminds and so avoided them till the end but I probably shouldn't have as these were way more clearly logical than most Masterminds I have done in the past (or I may just have spotted it quicker) and I zipped through them right after the contest. Probably if the Curve Data mess up hadn't upset my rhythm I could have finished this set.

Other than all that personal drama, this was an excellent contest. My favorites were probably the Cross Words section. Thanks Amit!

Awesome. Can't wait! :)

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?	Word Division
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 hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Curve Data
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

Too hard but what an incredible set of puzzles. Most of the themes were fantastic and the answer key of that Word Nurikabe was a cute little touch.
It also looks like no one would have completed this set without Instant Grading (based on the first 13 players to complete it at the time of posting this).

Favourites: Hard Matchsticks, Medium Curve Data, Hard Curve Data.

Clearly I spent more time admiring the puzzles than checking my answer keys :D

Can't remember the last time I gasped 'Oh Wow' during the solve of a test.
Thanks Amit for the fun and hard puzzles as always!

Thanks Prasanna, for most of the puzzles I used the grid size to adjust the difficulty. The larger grid sizes also allow to introduce more subtle logic for solving.

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?	Double Cross
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 am quite inexperiences in these type of puzzles but I managed to finish some of the hardest puzzles within the time limit besides easy ones.

Thanks Rohan.

Agreed on the instant grading. Till now there is'nt any full score without mistakes.

We tried to adjust the puzzle difficulty for the test. Word Nurikabe was introduced later to lend some balance.

Will post the slightly harder puzzles after the test.

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?	Word Division
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

Fantastic test! Even though i did not come close to finishing, the feeling of having attempted a good number of puzzles brings some satisfaction. The logic in the puzzles were very clean and thorough. Favourites were Word Division 2, Mastermind 2 and 3.
Not being able to complete the Word Nurikabe 6 ptr and the 9 ptr Letter scrabble was a disappointment. Look forward to finishing the set later.

Thanks Amit, Great puzzles!

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?	Letter Scrabble
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?	Many puzzles were worth too much or too little
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right