hi,

Just came in the news that the Scoreboard has been Finalized, and was desperate to check my solutions for the Billboard Problem and Alphabet Soup Problem. Both of them are correct and due to the time differnces my penalty was calculate at80 hours and awarded a rank of 1588. Now some stats:

Total Participants: 7605

Total who qualified: 5946 (Earlier this was 5898 but more users were added)

Rank 1: Rudradev Basak (IIT-D student promising programmer, he rocked codechef sometime ago)

Most Difficult Problem : Auctions

Easiest Problem : Alphabet Soup

People who solved all three problems : 22 (Facebook said only one needed to qualify)

People Who Solved at least 2 problems correctly: 2327

Main Score Board : https://www.facebook.com/hackercup/scoreboard?round=146094915502528

Your Score Board: https://www.facebook.com/hackercup/scoreboard?round=146094915502528&target=me

Next Round: I do not have the slightest idea, will update when I know!

My Verdict:

1. I said in the very beginning, Alphabet Soup was so easy to let almost anyone in, the thing is if you can't solve problems as simple as this, then that means you are not even on Stage I of programming.
2. The ranking methodology is totally wrong, since Facebook gave a 72 hours deadline, that meant Programmers should be spending time on designing an efficient algorithm over a long period, so the ranking should be based on whose algorithm is most efficient at solving problems (the truth is Facebook does not has technology to simulate the algorithm, hope they incorporated SPOJ like technology in their system.) There are many reasons a programmer cannot submit solution fastest in the 72 hour deadline, but if his code is much more faster than others, then his ranking should be reimbursed.
3. The downloading of input files in the starting were as messy as last year because the code was buggy, they need to do something about that.

Still I qualify...

Cheers!