Project Euler Forum

FYI the bug seems not entirely fixed. I'm currently 339 in dodecahedrons which is on page 4 and it's pointing me to page 3 now. If it helps, my guess was the previous bug was only present when rank was 0 mod 100.

It is finding the right page, but the cache hadn't updated. In the early hours of the morning member ranks are updated in the DB. However, I'd changed the name of the cache for member ranks, but forgot to modify the script that clears the old cache. It should all be working properly now.

Right now on the problem pages for archived problems it's consistently showing that very few ranked members have solved each problem, even for the early problems.

Thank you for letting me know. There are quite a few problems at the moment. The epicentre of where the problem lies is impacting a number of other areas. The central issue has impacted demographics, which has impacted problem ranks, which has spilled over into the historical rank data, which has captured these sudden jumps. There are other areas impacted too. I am working hard to address the central issue, then I'll deal with the peripheral issues.

I noticed that the description of the Brainstormer award has been changed to: "Contributed to the development of three or more problems."
However, on my Problem Solving Awards page, the Brainstormer award progress still counts up to 5 problems instead of 3.
Is this an intended change that hasn't been fully rolled out yet?

That was an oversight. It was intended to have the threshold for Brainstormer change to 3 or more contributions. I have changed it to count correctly.

On solving the first 50 problems, I got the "Easy Prey" award that should be handed out for solving the 50 easiest problems. However, the 50 first problems aren't the 50 easiest ones. May this difference have been introduced by the recent changes?

If you go to the Archives table and click the arrow above Level it will sort the problems in ascending order of difficulty. The problems on the first page will now be the fifty easiest problems.

Similarly, for your information, if you click the down arrow below Level it will sort in descending order of difficulty. Big Game Hunter is earned for solving 25 of the top one-hundred difficult problems. That is, 25 problems from the first two pages.

That's true.

I'm a bit confused by your reply. Maybe I misworded what I was trying to say.
My point was, I got an award that I shouldn't have gotten, which I consider a bug.

I've solved the first 50 problems by ID.
If I sort by level, either way, I haven't solved the first 50 problems in the list.

Therefore, I shouldn't have gotten the award for the 50 easiest problems. Right?

Sorry, I misread your post. You're absolutely right, but I have no idea why. I've just been through the scripts and tested them on my machine. There are two places where awards are checked and both places provide the correct list of the fifty easiest problems. Can you recall if you earned the award when you solved a problem or when you visited the awards section on your progress page? Do you know when you earned it?

It seems to work for you. That's strange.
I'm pretty sure I got both the "Flawless Fifty" and "Easy Prey" at the same time, when I entered the solution to the 50th problem. I even mentioned "more achievements" in my diary. Other than the first 50 problems by ID, I had only solved problem 67.
The time was this Wednesday, 15:34:18, UTC+2.

I noticed that recent few days profile badge rank figure (Dodecahedron) is small and rest of figure's place is black. Attached as badge.png

I'd resized the rank images because they were 512x512 which was unnecessarily large. However, I'd forgotten to change the way that the profile image script resamples it to fix on the badge. It should be fixed now.

DerTaktiker wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2026 4:56 pm On solving the first 50 problems, I got the "Easy Prey" award that should be handed out for solving the 50 easiest problems. However, the 50 first problems aren't the 50 easiest ones. May this difference have been introduced by the recent changes?

I noticed I also got the same bug as of yesterday, I got the same award without fulfilling the requirements.
Unlike DerTaktiker I haven't solved by ascensing ID.

I think I found the bug!. To earn the Big Game Hunter you need to solve 25 problems from among the 100 most difficult problems. The Easy Prey is meant to be the 50 easiest problems. However, the script was checking that 50 problems had been solved from among the 100 easiest problems, which would include the first 50 or, in your case Cyberknight_, your assortment of solved problems ticked the box. I've changed the script to match the description.

If you'd prefer me to remove the award so you can earn it again let me know, but I'm more than happy to leave the award in place.

Congratulations on finding the bug, must admit it is a bit peculiar; don't bother yourself removing that award, I'll work on validating the conditions for real!

I wouldn't miss the award if you removed it, but given that many others may have gotten it under the same conditions, I also wouldn't complain if I kept it.

I'm just wondering about the "Easy Prey" award.. Would it be possible that someone has solved 49 out of the 50 easiest problems, and before solving the missing problem, the ratings of the problems change such that the 50 easiest problems are solved? If then the award isn't given, it might become impossible to attain.
Other awards related to difficulty might be similar. Have you considered this, euler?

Below each problem is a graph of that problem's rank movements over the past 28 days. Although they don't tend to change that much, it remains a frustrating possibility. One of the most elusive awards for that reason is Mount Euler. However, there have been members for which it has gone the other way. They had solved more problems than needed on the level below a level for which they were missing one problem. The next day, that problem from the level below gets bumped up a level and the award unlocks. Although ranks can change, level changes are much more rare though. They only affect problems that sit on the boundary.

As with all these awards, they are there for fun and if you were only ever planning to solve the fifty easiest problems and quit PE, then it might be more annoying if a problem suddenly switched places in the ranks. But in reality, with perseverance you will have solved more than enough problems to have comfortably earned that award, so it won't be a case of only just earning it, it will be a case of you having completed the first 60-70 easiest problems. The same is true for Mount Euler.

It seems like adding a friend leads to a blank page, and that the friend is not being added. A friend reported me this, and it also does happen on my account. I didn't see that mentioned in the last few messages.

This is the first I've heard about it, so thanks for letting me know. I think I know what caused it, so it should be working again.