Solving problems too fast?

[cobalt]

Does this message mean I am solving problems too fast?

"As you have attempted to submit an answer before the exclusion period had ended it has now been extended to 10 minutes."

I tried two other problems and now I'm up to 30 minutes.

Some of these are neat little one-liners in my environment of choice and take seconds to solve, so it's sort of a bummer that I'm being rate-limited.

-Mike

[cobalt]

I just noticed there was a second page of posts here and seems like other people have run into this.

It's understandable to block repeated answer attempts for the SAME problem, but I'm getting blocked the FIRST time I submit an answer for a problem. Move to a new problem, submit an answer, and boom, 10 more minutes.

Guess I'll come back tomorrow.

[euler]

There's a lot of confusion about this, and I know it can be frustrating, so here's how it works...

Each time you submit an answer it creates a unique time stamp linked to your username and a counter of 1. If you submit another answer within one minute of that time stamp the counter increases to 2. If you submit a third answer within one minute of the original time stamp then the counter increases to 3 and you get a ten minute "block".

However, time stamps that have not led to a "block" are destroyed after one minute of being created. So if you haven't been blocked and you attempt to submit an answer more than one minute after the time stamp was created then there's no problem! The old time stamp has been destroyed and a new one is made with a counter of 1.

However, once you've received a block and you attempt to submit an answer before the ten minutes has elapsed then the block time is reset and extended for ten minutes, meaning a twenty minute block, and so on.

Also note that the counter makes no distinction between a right and wrong answer, so I hear all sorts of complaints about this. But is it possible to read the details of a problem, write a program, and submit the answer for three separate problems in one minute?

The most common reason that members get "blocked" is because they do the following. They write a program and get an answer. After trying it they are told, "Sorry...". So they think, "It can't be far out so I'll try one less and one more." Now you're blocked, as you've submitted three answers in a one minute period. Of course this x, x-1, x+1 approach is against the spirit of Project Euler.

So if you try an answer and it doesn't work then your method is wrong. Stop and think about it. Sometimes you might be one out, but if you take time to look at your method and figure out why it's wrong then you'll know if it should be one more or one less; it won't be a guess. That way you're only likely to submit two guesses in a one minute period and you won't get blocked.

I hope that explains it.

[daniel.is.fischer]

I got blocked because, when I was below 100%, I solved a bunch of problems a time and was too fast going to the next problem. I think that also bites some others, so if there's an easy way to make the time stamps aware of correct answers AND different problems, it might be worth it. However, I think doing that would be too complicated to bother, would it?

[hbf]

euler wrote:

But is it possible to read the details of a problem, write a program, and submit the answer for three separate problems in one minute?

It's quite possible to solve a bunch of problems offline and submit all the answers at once.

[hk]

Of course. But..
Fast solving may be doable for a number of problems but that number is not so great.
For most of the problems reading the problem description, starting to think about them, coding them and troubleshooting your code requires quite a time.
So after submitting an answer that was correct, simply start to read the next problem description and start to think about it.
You will soon experience that for most problems that takes far more time then the time lapse we impose between successive trials.
So is it such a problem to come back when you think you solved your problem?

[bunuelo]

I ran into this when I started out. I would print a bunch of problems and solve them on an airplane, etc. when I did not have internet access. Then when I was online again, I tried to enter several correct answers and got blocked. Perhaps, as a middle-ground, when two answers (correct or incorrect) are submitted within a one-minute interval, the user could be given a warning that another submission within n seconds will result in a 10-minute block. As it is, the block can be surprising and frustrating, especially when one is not trying to stab at the solution in an unsportsmanlike way.

[hk]

I would support this suggestion.