Moscow Puzzle Cup 2024 (8th - 14th Dec) Discuss
Asian Sudoku Championship 2025
Sudoku Champs 2024
Shading and Loops - 20th - 25th Mar 2020 - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier 202077 posts • Page 3 of 4 • 1 2 3 4
@ 2020-03-23 1:01 PM (#27786 - in reply to #27732) (#27786) Top

euklid



Posts: 28
20
Country : Austria

euklid posted @ 2020-03-23 1:01 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? Border Nurikabe
 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


@ 2020-03-23 4:35 PM (#27787 - in reply to #27732) (#27787) Top

tamz29



Posts: 225
10010020
Country : Thailand

tamz29 posted @ 2020-03-23 4:35 PM

Nice test, Swaroop.
This goes to show that not all easy puzzles are boring.
A lovely introduction to these types where a lot of existing puzzles written could be impossibly difficuly for newer solvers.
Thanks!
@ 2020-03-23 7:00 PM (#27788 - in reply to #27732) (#27788) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2020-03-23 7:00 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? Border Nurikabe
 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


@ 2020-03-23 7:00 PM (#27789 - in reply to #27732) (#27789) Top

An LMI player



An LMI player posted @ 2020-03-23 7:00 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? Border Nurikabe
 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


@ 2020-03-23 8:41 PM (#27790 - in reply to #27732) (#27790) Top

pranavmanu



Posts: 55
2020
Country : India

pranavmanu posted @ 2020-03-23 8:41 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? Trio Cut
 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


Thanks a lot Swaroop for a near perfect test
Favourites were Ripple Loop set and Trio cut set
Had a lot of time for the Windows but couldnt get them which was quite disappointing
Enjoyed!
@ 2020-03-23 10:21 PM (#27791 - in reply to #27732) (#27791) Top

rob



Posts: 170
100202020
Country : Germany

rob posted @ 2020-03-23 10:21 PM

Thanks Swaroop, this felt like a perfect PR round to me. Easy puzzles (but, honestly, not *that* easy to solve rigorously, so very much appropriate for a contest targetted towards less experienced solvers. Thanks a lot!

I feel lucky for the instant grading, since my one mistake was a real mistake (I'd let some transparent yajilin clues unused by the loop) and not just an input error.
@ 2020-03-24 3:29 AM (#27792 - in reply to #27732) (#27792) Top

Feadoor



Posts: 22
20
Country : United Kingdom

Feadoor posted @ 2020-03-24 3:29 AM

 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? Yajilin
 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


@ 2020-03-24 8:55 AM (#27793 - in reply to #27787) (#27793) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-24 8:55 AM

tamz29 - 2020-03-23 4:35 PM

Nice test, Swaroop.
This goes to show that not all easy puzzles are boring.
A lovely introduction to these types where a lot of existing puzzles written could be impossibly difficulty for newer solvers.
Thanks!


Thank you very much.
@ 2020-03-24 8:56 AM (#27794 - in reply to #27790) (#27794) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-24 8:56 AM

pranavmanu - 2020-03-23 8:41 PM

Thanks a lot Swaroop for a near perfect test
Favourites were Ripple Loop set and Trio cut set
Had a lot of time for the Windows but couldnt get them which was quite disappointing
Enjoyed!


Thank you. Although completing would have been better, but you did well.
@ 2020-03-24 8:57 AM (#27795 - in reply to #27791) (#27795) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-24 8:57 AM

rob - 2020-03-23 10:21 PM

Thanks Swaroop, this felt like a perfect PR round to me. Easy puzzles (but, honestly, not *that* easy to solve rigorously, so very much appropriate for a contest targetted towards less experienced solvers. Thanks a lot!

I feel lucky for the instant grading, since my one mistake was a real mistake (I'd let some transparent yajilin clues unused by the loop) and not just an input error.


Thank you Rob.
@ 2020-03-24 2:31 PM (#27796 - in reply to #27732) (#27796) Top

harmeet



Posts: 87
20202020
Country : India

harmeet posted @ 2020-03-24 2:31 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? Windows
 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


@ 2020-03-24 5:10 PM (#27797 - in reply to #27732) (#27797) Top

Helen



Posts: 4

Country : Australia

Helen posted @ 2020-03-24 5:10 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? Myopia
 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


@ 2020-03-24 8:12 PM (#27799 - in reply to #27732) (#27799) Top

Grizix



Posts: 30
20
Country : France

Grizix posted @ 2020-03-24 8:12 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? Average
 Which set of puzzles did you like the most? Transparent Yajilin
 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


@ 2020-03-24 10:29 PM (#27801 - in reply to #27732) (#27801) Top

Swagatam



Posts: 45
2020
Country : India

Swagatam posted @ 2020-03-24 10:29 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? Ripple Loop


@ 2020-03-25 12:38 AM (#27802 - in reply to #27732) (#27802) Top

bskbri



Posts: 34
20
Country : Turkey

bskbri posted @ 2020-03-25 12:38 AM

 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? Myopia
 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


@ 2020-03-25 3:44 PM (#27803 - in reply to #27732) (#27803) Top

A Carton Mutant



Posts: 33
20
Country : Turkey

A Carton Mutant posted @ 2020-03-25 3:44 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? Transparent Yajilin
 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


A very nice set. I was afraid of trio cuts eating my time, happily I got them fast enough. 12-pointer Border Nurikabe was pretty fun but maybe overvalued, after some initial progress I was convinced that the regions will mostly be "outlined" by borders (especially the 9) so it worked quicker than expected. My favorites are the large classic yajilin and the transparents. Thanks for the puzzles! Stay safe everyone.
@ 2020-03-25 8:56 PM (#27805 - in reply to #27732) (#27805) Top

ABcDexter



Posts: 50
2020
Country : India

ABcDexter posted @ 2020-03-25 8:56 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? Border Nurikabe
 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 really loved the puzzles, enjoyed solving Nurikabe and its variant.

Hope that our friend Shaheer rests in peace.
@ 2020-03-26 1:07 AM (#27808 - in reply to #27732) (#27808) Top

mstang




Posts: 74
202020
Country : United States

mstang posted @ 2020-03-26 1:07 AM

 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? Border Nurikabe
 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


Nice, although easier than other PR rounds so far in my opinion. The puzzle quality was great, so I can't complain much!

Edited by mstang 2020-03-26 1:08 AM
@ 2020-03-26 6:57 AM (#27809 - in reply to #27803) (#27809) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-26 6:57 AM

A Carton Mutant - 2020-03-25 3:44 PM

A very nice set. I was afraid of trio cuts eating my time, happily I got them fast enough. 12-pointer Border Nurikabe was pretty fun but maybe overvalued, after some initial progress I was convinced that the regions will mostly be "outlined" by borders (especially the 9) so it worked quicker than expected. My favorites are the large classic yajilin and the transparents. Thanks for the puzzles! Stay safe everyone.


Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed.
@ 2020-03-26 6:58 AM (#27810 - in reply to #27805) (#27810) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-26 6:58 AM

ABcDexter - 2020-03-25 8:56 PM

I really loved the puzzles, enjoyed solving Nurikabe and its variant.

Hope that our friend Shaheer rests in peace.


Thank you.
@ 2020-03-26 6:58 AM (#27811 - in reply to #27808) (#27811) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-26 6:58 AM

mstang - 2020-03-26 1:07 AM

Nice, although easier than other PR rounds so far in my opinion. The puzzle quality was great, so I can't complain much!


Thank you. Indeed the difficulty was set to be on the easier side.
@ 2020-03-26 7:02 AM (#27812 - in reply to #27732) (#27812) Top

swaroop2011




Posts: 668
500100202020
Country : India

swaroop2011 posted @ 2020-03-26 7:02 AM

Thank you, everyone, for their wonderful feedback and participation. I will divide my overall thoughts into different categories.

Puzzle Types:
I wanted to have a mix of some standard puzzles and some new variants which are bit unpopular or don’t regularly appear. So I choose Nurikabe, Windows, and Yajilin in the regulars. In the un-popular category, I was first trying to select Every Second Breakpoint and even created two puzzles of it, but was not satisfied with it, as they were coming out very trivial. Then I found Myopia Loop and really liked it, so I went with that. I also liked Transparent Yajilin and Ripple Loop very much.

Puzzle Difficulty and Quality:
Definitely I wanted the test to be on the easier side and accessible to newcomers but maintaining the puzzle quality, so that it doesn’t become trivial solve (Unless you are Ken Endo – Impressive performance). Looking at the performance with 88 solvers finishing the test, I think I achieved that. Based on the feedback from most of them, I feel happy that you enjoyed the test and really liked the puzzles.

Puzzle Points:
I think most of them agreed with the point structure, with very few of them concerning Nurikabe Borders being overrated. I partially agree with you that, this puzzle might feel overrated if you can intuitively see the areas (especially for numbers 8 and 9), then it becomes easy. But for newcomers, who are trying to solve step by step, it will definitely be more challenging. So I hope you understand our methodology of setting the points of this puzzle to be high.

Answer Keys:
I wanted it to be simple and consistent across puzzles. I know it might not be possible to do a similar thing in a lot of tests, but fortunately, it worked out here. I believe no complaints here from anyone.

Winners:
Congratulations to the top 3 Overall: EKBM, WA1729 and fff1015.
Congratulations to the top 3 India: Prasanna, Rohan, Ashish. (Special mention goes to Amit and Kishore too for finishing the test). Good performance by Priyam too, considering new in this field.

Statistics:
1) Most Submitted Puzzle – Windows 4 Points (250 Solvers)
2) Least Submitted Puzzle – Windows 7 Points (143 Solvers)
3) Most correct submissions – Myopia 2 Points (97.34%)
4) Least correct submissions – Windows 4 Points (70.4%)
5) Most Favourite types – Transparent Yajilin, Myopia, Border Nurikabe in order
It’s fascinating that most and least submitted puzzles are of the same type.

Thankings:
Thank you, everyone, again for their feedback. A special thanks to Rakesh, as always doing an extraordinary work behind the scenes, for bringing everything together, for testing, feedback, etc. Thanks to LMI for providing me the opportunity to author the round.

Final Words:
If any of you are stuck in any of the puzzles, please feel free to post in the forum, or message me directly, would be happy to help you. Best of luck for the next PR. Good luck to Priyam for Authoring Debut along with our veteran author Prasanna.
@ 2020-03-26 9:38 AM (#27813 - in reply to #27812) (#27813) Top

rakesh_rai




Posts: 774
500100100202020
Country : India

rakesh_rai posted @ 2020-03-26 9:38 AM

I would re-phrase the first four points in statistics:

1) Most solved puzzles - 1-Nurikabe (216), 2-Nurikabe (209) and 12-Yajilin (209)
2) Least solved puzzles - 7-Windows (120), 17-Ripple Loop (137) and 9-Trio Cut (142)
3) Most accurate submissions - 20-Myopia (97.34%), 7-Trio Cut (96.48%), 12-Yajilin (96.31%)
4) Most error-prone (Least accurate) submissions - 4-Windows (70.4%), 17-Ripple Loop (79.19%), 6-Windows (83.91%)
@ 2020-03-26 10:31 AM (#27814 - in reply to #27732) (#27814) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2020-03-26 10:31 AM

Thanks to the 241 participants from 39 countries. Congratulations to Endo Ken, Walker Anderson and Soji Kubota for finishing the set in under 30 minutes. Ryotaro Chiba (Japan) was the first to start the test while Michael Tang (USA) was the last person to start the test. The median score of the test was 83.8.

Top finishers for countries with 10+ participants:

India(34): Prasanna Seshadri, Rohan Rao and Ashish Kumar
Japan(26): Tomoya Kimura, Hideaki Jo, Kota Morinishi (ranks 3-5)
USA(23): Jeffrey Bardon, Nick Brady and Gabriel Hirsch (Ranks 2-4)
France(15): Anne Limoges, Denis Auroux and Timothy Doyle
Germany(15): Robert Vollmert, Michael Ley and Jonas Gleim
Italy(15): Giuliano Montelucci, Stefano Forcolin and Arianna Domenichelli
Czech Republic (10): Ond?ej Motlí?ek, Jana Vodi?ková, Jakub Ondroušek
UK(10): Freddie Hand, Tom Collyer and Sam Cappleman-Lynes


Thanks Swaroop Guggilam for the puzzles!

Participants may share feedback on the results page and rate the puzzles on the contest page.
@ 2020-03-26 10:37 AM (#27815 - in reply to #27732) (#27815) Top

Administrator



20001000500202020
Country : India

Administrator posted @ 2020-03-26 10:37 AM

The Solution Booklet is now available here.
Shading and Loops - 20th - 25th Mar 2020 - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier 202077 posts • Page 3 of 4 • 1 2 3 4
Jump to forum :
Search this forum
Printer friendly version