These rules are effective from March 1, 2020.

## 1. Difficulty Contribution

The difficulty contribution should honestly reflect the difficulty experienced when solving the problem based on the difficulty contribution guidelines. The following types of difficulty contributions may be arbitrarily deleted by the administrators:

**a**. If a difficulty is assigned to a specific problem that most other users find hard to accept

* Example: Contributing Ruby I to problem 1000, Bronze V to problem 8481
* Contributions before 2020 that confused Platinum with Silver are exceptions.
* If such contributions were made to increase one's tier, not only can the contribution be deleted, but the rating for contributing to that problem may not be reflected.

**b**. If irrelevant or unhelpful tags are attached to a specific problem
* Example: Tagging tag:dijkstra to problem 1003
* Only the specific tag may be deleted Instead of deleting the entire difficulty contribution.
* If irrelevant tags are attached to a problem in large numbers, it may be considered an attempt to confuse users.

**c**. If one uses automated scripts to bulk-rate the difficulty of problems they have solved to gain rating points for difficulty contribution

**d**. If difficulty contributions are made through abnormal methods to gain rating points
* If you discover that making difficulty contributions through abnormal methods is possible, please report immediately to shift@solved.ac. A badge will be awarded to your profile.

**e**. If the same individual uses multiple accounts to make more than one contribution to a problem

## 2. Difficulty Contribution Comments

Difficulty contribution comments should be written based on respect for setters, other contributors, and those solving the problems. The administrators can arbitrarily delete the following comments:

**a**. If they contain hateful content based on race, sex, sexual orientation, region, religion, level of education, or standard of living

**b**. If they contain derogatory content about the problem setter, other contributors, or those solving the problems

**c**. If they contain swear words

**d**. If they write about something unrelated to the problem or solving the problem

## 3. Source Code Ethics

In the following cases, administrative sanctions may be imposed:

The following actions may result in usage restrictions at the discretion of the administrators:

**a**. Submitting a solution that includes, either partially or entirely, source code not written by yourself as a key component of problem-solving, with the intent of increasing rating and tier, obtaining profile backgrounds and badges, or receiving event rewards.
- If any of the 100 problems that contribute to the AC RATING at the time of resolution fall under the above case, the submission will be considered as having been made for the purpose of increasing rating.
- Code generated by AI tools is not recognized as code written by the user. While solved.ac does not prohibit the use of AI tools, if there is substantial reason to believe that the key components of the solution are mostly or entirely AI-generated, it will be subject to restrictions.

## 4. Event Participation

The acquisition of rewards may be arbitrarily restricted if the same individual uses multiple accounts to participate in events or similar.

## 5. Arena

**a**. You should not discuss the problem with other participants while participating in the arena.

**b**. You can only participate in the arena with one account per person. However, the following exceptions are allowed:
- If you have previously participated in the arena with a different account, you can only participate with a new account if you no longer wish to use the previous one.

**c**. You should not participate in the arena with more than one account simultaneously.

**d**. It is acceptable for the source code submitted during the arena participation to have been written before the start of the contest, provided that the submitted code does not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as copyright.

**e**. Participants of a previous contest that includes the same problems, held before or simultaneously, should not participate in the Open Contest arena.

**f**. If you wish to participate in the arena, you must register up to 5 minutes before the start of the contest.

## Sanctions
If a contribution is deleted due to a violation of the above, additional sanctions may be applied depending on the severity of the violation:

* **1.c.**, **1.d.**
  - Permanent restriction on difficulty contributions and site usage.
* **1.e.**
  - Permanent restriction on difficulty contributions for the concerned multiple accounts.
* **2.a.**, **2.b.**, **2.c.**
  - A 30-day restriction on difficulty contributions. If repeated more than 3 times within the last 365 days, the restriction will be permanent.
* **1.a.**, **1.b.**, **2.d.**
  - If malice is determined, a 7-day restriction on difficulty contributions and permanent restriction on difficulty contributions for the problem. If repeated more than 5 times within the last 365 days, there is a permanent restriction on difficult contributions.
* **3.a.**
  - Setting the concerned account's experience, rating, and CLASS permanently to 0.
  - No rewards will be given for participating in events when the rating is set to 0, and the user will be excluded from the ranking.
* **5.a.**, **5.b.**, **5.c.**, **5.d.**, **5.e.**
  - Setting the arena rating of the concerned account permanently to 0.

Additionally, depending on the administrators' judgment, all contributions made by the violating user may be deleted, or the user's site access may be permanently restricted.


solved.ac Site Usage Rules – v1