235
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Using lots of spaces to "hide" code out of bounds, especially in underhanded questions. This isn't very clever or tricky, in my opinion, and yet wins all too often.
Example:
...
140
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Fake random numbers
Pretty much any underhanded challenge involving random numbers will have someone post this one:
...
133
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Adding input or rules which weren't explicitly mentioned in the challenge
There was recently a case where an answerer claimed
Nowhere does it say the program can't (also) ask the user what the [...
120
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Zero-length quines
Considering an empty program a quine was original in the 1994 IOCCC.
Over two decades later, if you can answer a question with an empty program and that question is scored by ...
106
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Using a different name for something that's prohibited
The title is not very clear, I know, but this is what it means: if a specific function is prohibited, someone can use a language where another ...
92
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Using a non-free language on a Cops and Robbers challenge
Most (currently all) cops and robbers challenges consist of two parts:
A cop submission, where a user posts some secret property of a ...
90
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Using prior knowledge to circumvent other loopholes
In particular, gaining an unfair advantage by inventing new languages for future challenges that are being sandboxed, discussed in chat, are your ...
84
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Using MetaGolfScript
MetaGolfScript is a family of programming languages. For example, the empty program in MetaGolfScript-209180605381204854470575573749277224 prints "Hello, World!".
It is similar ...
68
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Suicidal entries to King-of-the-Hill challenges.
EmoWolf was funny the first time, but it's getting out of hand.
While some not-too-serious answers are often necessary to kickstart a king-of-the-...
66
votes
Let's allow newer languages/versions for older challenges
Trust the community and add a standard loophole
I think the community can handle the add-a-builtin problem (I may be very wrong). I think that if someone adds a feature to their language that is ...
- 13.2k
62
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Creating a new compiler for a language after a challenge was posted
There is some debate arising from this answer. He created his own compiler for the C programming language that extends the language ...
61
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Abusing native number types to trivialize a problem
It is common practice to restrict challenges to cases where input, output and/or intermediate values of the algorithm of choice fit into the ...
58
votes
Accepted
When can APL characters be counted as 1 byte each?
GNU APL and ngn/apl use UTF-8, so use a byte counting tool.
NARS2000 only uses UCS-2, so 2 bytes per character.
IBM's APL2 is the only modern APL that natively supports APL EBCDIC, so 1 byte per ...
- 27.6k
56
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Optimising for the given test cases
This applies to code-challenges and things like fastest-code, where you write some code that is measured by a criterion like runtime or size of your output (e.g. ...
47
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Changing your username to fit a username dependent challenge
Changing your username or registering a new one to make your score better in username or userID dependent challenges.
41
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
URL shorteners / shortened URLs
Every once in a while, we get a challenge that requires fetching some data from the internet. While some of them manage to ban URL shorteners in time, other don't. I ...
41
votes
Accepted
Can I ever answer with a language invented after the challenge was posted?
Yes
Languages invented after a challenge should be allowed to be posted, but not be allowed to win.
- 88.1k
41
votes
Accepted
Definitive policy about answers not meeting the challenge specification
Scope
As I see it, there are five types of invalid answers:
Answers that produce incorrect results.
This is the most common type, and usually an accident.
Answers that produce correct results, but ...
- 206k
41
votes
Definite policy about duplicate answers
Allow duplicate answers
I think we shouldn't take action against duplicate submissions, even when the code is identical. We should assume good faith: the second submitter almost surely came up with ...
- 137k
39
votes
What constitutes a "free" language for cops and robbers?
Free access may not be time-limited
For a language to count as free, there has to be a time-unlimited, cost-free way (that does not violate any laws or terms of service) to compile and/or interpret ...
- 206k
38
votes
Accepted
Can I invent a language to solve a problem that's in the Sandbox?
No.
This is similar to updating the language after the actual question has been posted. It's simply no different.
To circumvent this loophole, maybe question askers should put the date at which it ...
- 11k
37
votes
Can numeric input/output be in unary?
Yes, but only for languages such as sed, Retina, ///, etc.
Only where it is the language's most natural integer representation.
I'm in general a fan of taking input in the most natural format for a ...
- 41.3k
36
votes
Accepted
Are newbies allowed to write programs in golf languages?
Let's just put it this way — where do experienced golfing language users come from? They certainly don't just fall out of the sky, and must have started somewhere, right?
Without the practice and ...
- 60.9k
36
votes
Is a proof of impossibility allowed as an answer?
This is my opinion:
If the proof of impossibility is trivial, offer it as a comment and hope the OP revises their question or deletes it. If they don't, it should be closed as "unclear what you're ...
- 7,182
35
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
Outputting an expression instead of a number
For example, outputting 3*3 instead of 9, or outputting ...
34
votes
Loopholes that are forbidden by default
When consistent and distinct values are asked as input, you cannot input complete or partial functions
When I create a challenge and ask for a boolean or two '...
33
votes
Ethics of posting if you're a bad programmer
Of course you can!
We welcome any and all participation. How you choose to participate is up to you.
I went over a year without posting any challenges at all; all of my participation was answers. ...
- 24.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible