46
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Saying you should produce one or several outputs randomly without further specification
One random output
Say someone writes a challenge about generating a labyrinth of a given size (width and height) ...
- 105k
38
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Formulating the challenge as something and then including a twist that completely changes the task
Don't hide information from the reader. Don't enounce the challenge as something that later on it ...
- 105k
38
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
The prime numbers
We have 226 questions about prime numbers at the time of writing. Almost every single one of these involves some adaptation of the “canonical prime checking code” or the “canonical ...
- 69.2k
33
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Input Validation
This is a subset of adding special cases for completeness that seems to come up pretty often. From a given set of possible inputs, a solution shouldn't have to sort out inputs that ...
Jo KingMod
- 47.5k
25
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Hidden pattern in the output for code golf challenges
You should not post a challenge in which an essential part is to find a pattern in the required output, which is not stated in the challenge but ...
- 105k
22
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Using old challenges as a model
Just because an old challenge did something doesn't mean yours should too. Many old challenges wouldn't pass muster nowadays. Don't be surprised if your challenge is ...
- 147k
22
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Excessively long back stories
This is a site for people who like programming challenges. They already want to see your idea for a challenge. You don't need a back story to make your challenge appeal ...
20
votes
Accepted
The broken window of "Produce the number 2014 without any numbers in your source code"
Add a disclaimer:
Note: New straightforward "Do X without Y" questions are not considered novel anymore and may be closed as duplicates of this question.
But I think it should be worded better.
...
- 37k
20
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Exceptional edge cases
Don't require special behavior when the input is the empty list, the number 0, a negative length, etc. This makes for nasty surprises for solvers who worked on a solution only ...
- 147k
19
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Adding special cases for the sake of completeness
This is a generalization of "complicated" number types, and is similar in scope to adding unnecessary fluff.
What I mean by this is that many ...
- 15.5k
16
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Assuming you've addressed sandbox feedback
When your challenge is in the sandbox and someone suggests a change or clarification, make sure your edit actually addresses their point. Too often the same ...
- 147k
16
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Using the sandbox to "defend" your challenge
The sandbox is meant to be an aid to improve the challenge. But once posted to the main site, the quality of the challenge is entirely the poster'...
- 105k
16
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Multipart challenges with unrelated sub-tasks
In general, a challenge on Code Golf should focus on a single core task. Challenges with multiple sub-tasks are discouraged, especially when the sub-tasks ...
- 78.4k
15
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Parsing expressions
In challenges dealing with algebraic expressions, don't make the golfer parse input strings like x^3-2x+1 or ...
- 147k
14
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Requiring multiple types as return value
This is very similar to Explicitly disallowing or disadvantaging arbitrary (classes of) languages though it's more subtle (and not necessarily explicit):
A ...
- 16.9k
13
votes
Should we disallow non-observable requirements?
Only for code golf
I think disallowing non-observable requirements is good, but should be limited to pure code golf (without restricted-complexity for instance). As Nathan Merrill points out, many ...
- 147k
11
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Real-valued output without further specification, or with a bad one
For integer outputs, you can check correctness with exact equality. For exact fractions, many challenges require to output a (...
- 78.4k
11
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Think twice if you're writing a challenge around an algorithm you found on the Internet
Simply put, it will never work as you expect, (though it could work as "a challenge") unless you pick ...
- 78.4k
11
votes
Tips for King of the Hill challenges
The Complete How-To KoTH
1. Have an idea
This is the part I can't help you with. If you're looking for ideas, check the sandbox, chat with others, or check your local board game store.
2. Refine ...
- 14.5k
11
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Problems without solutions
When writing a challenge, make sure it is actually solvable within the framework of recreational programming. While a task like "Identify objects in a picture" is ...
- 558
11
votes
A simple, clean and modern challenge about palindromes
I'd divide this into two questions:
Would the proposed challenge be acceptable according to our rules?
Keeping to our rules means the challenge must be on topic, with an objective winning criterion, ...
10
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Requiring time limits
This may differ depending on your opinion, as quite a lot of challenges have time restrictions, but, for me, this is a form of requiring a minimum score.
If a challenge is code-...
- 50.3k
10
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Consider if your challenge really needs random output
Challenges that require random output require extra clarifications that challenges with deterministic output do not, and additionally exclude ...
Wheat WizardMod
- 100k
9
votes
How can we get new users to use the sandbox properly?
I touch on this somewhat in this related discussion. My main thoughts (both from that discussion and on this):
New users need stronger, earlier encouragement to use the Sandbox. Ideally, new users ...
- 50.3k
8
votes
Should we disallow non-observable requirements?
This is a bad idea.
I like the sentiment of challenges being completely observable. I think that we should aim for questions to be as close to observable as possible, but I don't think it would be ...
- 14.5k
8
votes
For compression-related challenges, should we take steps to level the use of 7-bit and 8-bit character sets?
No
The premise of this question is "Strings are less efficient in language X, so let's give them a boost".
However, if we do that, then why limit ourselves to strings? If my language only ...
- 14.5k
8
votes
How can we improve the quality of new users' challenges?
As far as I can see, there are two big issues here that both need addressing:
Visibility of useful resources
How helpful those resources are
Visibility
No one likes having a whole bunch of links to ...
- 50.3k
7
votes
How can I retroactively deal with rules that turned out to make a challenge uninteresting?
If there are few answers you can maybe change the rules:
Leave a comment in the challenge saying the change to are considering to make. This is for people who are writing an answer now or intend to ...
- 105k
5
votes
Things to avoid when writing challenges
Challenges whose validity can only be judged based on an external source
Based on this discussion
Avoid writing challenges like "scrape this website" or "use this API" or reproduce ...
- 13.5k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible