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Google Code Jam 2005 Winners Announced 173

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the will-code-for-food dept.
Ember writes "The results of Google Code Jam are in. The winner is Marek Cygan from Warsaw University. Second prize goes to Erik-Jan Krijgsman from University of twente (Holland) and third to Pyotr Mitritchew from Moscow State University." Registration for the event took place back in July and Google reported a total of 14,500 registrants which is almost twice as many as last year, making for some stiff competition.
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Google Code Jam 2005 Winners Announced More

Google Code Jam 2005 Winners Announced

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  • Are others going to hold similar contests? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by CyricZ ( 887944 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:34PM (#13652924)
    Does anyone know if companies like IBM, Microsoft, Sun, SGI (well, maybe not SGI..) and some of the other big names in the computer industry are going to start holding similar competitions?

    • *sigh* This contest is put on by a company known as "TopCoder". TopCoder is an online Java Applet that allows contestants to compete against each other on a time to solution. Results are automatically checked through a set of Unit tests. As long as your program can produce the correct output for a given type of input, it will be considered correct.

      Sun, IBM, and many others have sponsored TopCoder competitions in the past. They have since backed off of them. I'm not certain as to the reasons, but TopCoder has received a LOT of criticism. The problem with their approach is that it only proves that the coder can think and type fast. It does nothing to address teamwork, cleanliness of code, design capabilities, engineering ability, or many other areas that are critical to a real world programming job. These contests can be a fun way to compete with your peers, but my guess is that a lot of companies have found that placing too much empahsis on the results is a good way to get burned.

      • Re:Are others going to hold similar contests? (Score:5, Informative)

        by AuMatar ( 183847 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:59PM (#13653111)
        I beta tested TopCoder once upon a time (they paid well for a few hours of college student's time). It has all the above problems plus a few not mentioned (limited ability to compile and test, limited access to tools, limited languages, etc). The two biggest things not mentioned here are that:

        1)The problems aren't real world. They're heavily algorithmic, and generally a google search can find you pseudocode. The competitions are generally won by whomever knows the algorithm already.
        2)Their code frequently requires heavy knowledge of the standard library for that language. If you don't know the StringTokenizer class in Java or wierd STL calls in C++, don't bother. Perhaps not an issue for everyone, but I learned C++ before templates existed, and never really liked the STL.
        3)Diving right into code is generally a bad way to program, but in this competition spending time on design is a losing proposition.

        THat said, it can be a fun thing to try out. I enjoyed it back in my beta testing days, even though back then they only allowed Java (one of my least favorite languages).
        • Of course, such contests bear little resemblance to real-world programming. Programming being a trade or a technology, not a science, such contests cannot prove that someone will succeed in business. But they do prove that the winner is a smart person, and provide an incentive for young people to be good at programming.

      • Re:Are others going to hold similar contests? (Score:5, Funny)

        by lucabrasi999 ( 585141 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @04:00PM (#13653118) Journal
        It does nothing to address teamwork, cleanliness of code, design capabilities, engineering ability, or many other areas that are critical to a real world programming job.

        Bah...the next thing you know, they'll want me to put comments in my code!

        • Bah...the next thing you know, they'll want me to put comments in my code!

          This highlights one of the other areas of TopCoder competitions: other codes in your "room" get to rip apart your code in the "challenge" phase. That is, they get to look at it and come up with cases that will break it. If they submit a test case that breaks your code, you lose all points for your submission. If they're incorrect, THEY lose points and you keep yours.

          This implies that writing hard-to-read code is actually a survival
        • "Bah...the next thing you know, they'll want me to put comments in my code!"

          Just wait till they tell you to use more than two characters for variable names and that you must use whitespace. What a waste of time.

          ~X~

      • Sun, IBM, and many others have sponsored TopCoder competitions in the past. They have since backed off of them. I'm not certain as to the reasons, but TopCoder has received a LOT of criticism. The problem with their approach is that it only proves that the coder can think and type fast. It does nothing to address teamwork, cleanliness of code, design capabilities, engineering ability, or many other areas that are critical to a real world programming job. These contests can be a fun way to compete with your

      • I've noticed a tendency for people to write off programming contests because it's not "really about programming", in so many words. I'd like to point out that these aren't "software development" contests: TopCoder does run those, and they are very different from the algorithm competition (the name the more popular contest goes by).

        Do you know why companies are looking to hire the winners of these contests? Is it so they can put tomek or SnapDragon to work chugging out applications? Hardly. Have you ever s
    • Sun already does [topcoder.com]. NSA [topcoder.com], Yahoo [topcoder.com], and Verisign [topcoder.com] are also sponsors. Looks like TopCoder runs it's own coding challenge independently of Google as well.
    • Microsoft holds the yearly Imagine Cup [imaginecup.com], which has had thousands of participants who program all kinds of .NET projects. Each year, a set of Student Ambassadors to Microsoft [studentambassador.net] are involved in promoting this competition and getting HS/college students interested in real-world programming projects which they continue to own and could potentially sell after demonstrating them to MS and INETA [ineta.org] members. I was one such SA, and was priveleged to know others who were knowledgeable and motivated, but it was a constant

  • Well.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by doxology ( 636469 ) <[ude.tim] [ta] [dyzzoc]> on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:34PM (#13652930) Homepage
    I guess Google didn't forget Poland.
    • Not only the Bush reference but if you look on the Windows XP timezone map (double click on the clock, select the timezone tab), Poland has become part of the Baltic sea! So Microsoft forgot Poland too.

  • Google's incentive? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:35PM (#13652936) Homepage Journal
    It doesn't surprise me that Google continues to increase Brain Drain in other big IT-focused companies (Microsoft, etc).

    Google seems to realize that information is the most valuable commodity now and in the future. While most companies fight to contain their hold of old information, Google invests in new ways to sort and distribute the information others have created.

    Programming is the real weapon of the war to produce information and sort it. By enabling programmers to compete, for profit, Google finds a huge new resource: ideas. What will the next information gathering or sorting device be? Hiring 15,000 people would cost millions. Forcing them to compete cost $10k.

    Unfortunately, this is counter-productivity for most folk here. 15000 people just worked for free, and Google reaped the short term benefits. It'll be interesting to see how Google utilizes the optimized routines of non-winners, if they're allowed to.

    • Re:Google's incentive? (Score:5, Funny)

      by TheOtherAgentM ( 700696 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:40PM (#13652970)
      Google could also somehow get me to get a job as a developer with their competition. My code would break, guaranteed. Now THAT is using code as a weapon.

    • Re:Google's incentive? (Score:5, Informative)

      by jdmetz ( 802257 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:43PM (#13652993) Homepage
      First of all, it cost them over $155,000, as that is how much prize money they gave out. They also spent quite a bit to fly 100 people to the bay area, put us up in a hotel, etc. Second, everyone competes on the same problems, and they are problems that most people could solve given enough time. Google does this to encourage programming, as well as to recruit programmers, not to benefit from the work these programmers do.
      • Yep, I knew I should have said "~$1M" instead of "$10K" mere nanoseconds after hitting reply. Doh.

        Nonetheless, Google isn't just giving me the "oh, how altruistic" feeling. I openly applaud them in this, but I still see how they gain from it, too. I'm not saying gain is bad, being Slashdot's King of Profit.

        Having everyone work on the same problem is far more profitable now that you have differing results tending to the same problem. You can invest in seeking new attacks on issues you already consider so
        • Maybe I should have said more, too. The ways that Google gains from this are by the apparent goodwill they receive, and from the recruiting of quick thinking computer programmers. I'm certain that they don't benefit from the code that is written. The problems are designed to challenge coders to come up with the right algorithm quickly, not to do something useful for Google. The problem authors have to provide a reference solution, so these are not unsolved problems. The problems are almost always somet

      • Re:Google's incentive? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by waveclaw ( 43274 )
        First of all, it cost them over $155,000, as that is how much prize money they gave out. They also spent quite a bit to fly 100 people to the bay area, put us up in a hotel, etc. Second,

        I am willing to bet that the prize, fare and hotel money was dwarfed by the costs of the Google employees that participated.

        People underestimate the cost of developing software. Most the money, however, is in overhead. Open source, code competitions and incentive programs (*cough* *cough* pay attention NASA *cough*) are ch
        • Typical numbers are $55k for salary ~.
          Add UI, SS, etc., and you're in the $75-80 range.

          Of course, you get what you pay for. If you're only paying your devs $55k, they're either .NET (ex-VBers) or really young, inexperienced and/or naïve.

    • Google seems to realize that information is the most valuable commodity now and in the future.

      Yup. Soon we will be entering the "Information Age" or according to some sociologists we already have.

      Its kinda scary that we are going from stone->metal->whatever->industrial->information. Because, AFAIK, information is the only thing that is not tangible. Its also witnessed by people being employed more and more into "services" vs manufacturing or something else. This is also witnessed by IBM's ne

    • Re:Google's incentive? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TrappedByMyself ( 861094 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:46PM (#13653014)
      15000 people just worked for free, and Google reaped the short term benefits.

      I think you're drifting a bit. This was a timed coding contest, not a long term R&D project. Really doubt you'll see thousands of new Google products popping up next week. This was with Topcoder also, who has been running these contests for awhile now. At best, Google gets positive PR and face time with top young developers, who they'll peg for interviews after school. This is about the people, not the ideas.
      • At best, Google gets positive PR and face time with top young developers, who they'll peg for interviews after school. This is about the people, not the ideas.
        They aren't even waiting until "after school." Google offered a series of interviews to any finalist who wanted it.

    • Re:Google's incentive? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by B3AST! ( 916930 )
      Hiring 15,000 people would cost millions. Forcing them to compete cost $10k.

      well....it actually cost them $155,000 in prizes plus i'm assuming they picked up the bill to fly the top 100 there AND for room and board

      but yes, much more cost effective still, although I don't feel that this kind of a competition shows as much about a coder as through other means, impressive, but there is more to a coder than what is shown here

    • Re:Google's incentive? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rovingeyes ( 575063 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:50PM (#13653040)
      Programming is the real weapon of the war to produce information and sort it

      I disagree with that. Programming is probably a part of the weapon, but I would say the real weapon is sharp minds, strategy and the vision to implement it - read "architects". I have seen programmers who can type code at 80 wpm. But they almost always lacked the big picture. They are just that programmers. Not only google but almost all major companies look for that brilliant mind. There is a reason why Microsoft chose to ask riddles in a tech interview. Now whether that is the right way to gauge true potential is questionable. But nonetheless, programming is just like any spoken language (e.g. english), anybody can speak it; but what you need is a great mind to create poetry that influences lifes.

  • .... was this a contest or a recruitment tool? After all, you get 14,500 people to submit code in a structured contest and you could likely find a few dozen new Google employees in the bunch.

  • fun but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sexyrexy ( 793497 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:37PM (#13652951)
    I find that such competitions are generally pretty worthless... like math competitions. The ability to solve problems that, while "complex" , are still solveable in mere hours, is not really indicative of a truly great talent in either field, mathematics or computer programming. It is simply indicative of a great talent of coming up with elegant solutions to very small, localized problems. Fine for the competition, but winning gives little reason that this young man will be any more successful a programmer than any other in the contest.

    A feat worthy of congratulations, to be sure, but it has no bearing on the real world - though many, including Google, pretended that it does.
    • I don't know about that. I think it gave him 10,000 little reasons. Seriously. He is in college and just got $10,000 He can use that money to help pay off loans, credit cards, and a million (well 10,000) other things. That decreased debt will certainly give him mobility when he gets out of college. Not being tied to impending bills leaving college allows you to be more selective when choosing a job, which increases chances of success. But that is most certianly not what you meant.
      • He is in college and just got $10,000

        He's from Poland too. I'm not familiar with Poland's economy but I'd be willing to bet that $10,000 goes much farther anywhere in Poland than it does in the bay area.

        • Ten thousand bucks is a good year's salary in Poland. So, it's a lot of money for a 3rd grade student, but not a fortune. He can buy himself a reaaaally good computer and a decent car, too.
    • Some would say the elegance is the genious. Your best bet to find a talented architect to solve large problems efficiently, is to start with a pool of people talented at solving little ones. Unless you rather draw from a hat?

    • Re:fun but... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Wildclaw ( 15718 )
      It may seem that way until you realize that the average programmer may take more than a day to solve the same problem that these guys solve in 30 minutes (If he solves it at all). The code of the average programmer will probably also take ten times as much space.

      So if your average programmer takes more than a day to solve a small localized problem, how much time will it take for him to solve a larger problem? While I can agree that overestimating the importance of problem solving skills isn't good, underest

    • Re:fun but... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by 3cnfsat ( 918074 )
      Math and computer science competition useless? Many people who took the IOI (an international high school programming competition) such as Mihai Patrascu, for instance, have done excellent work in theoretical computer science research. And Laslo Lovasz and Timothy Gowers, both International Math Olympiad gold medalists, are among today's best mathematicians, respectively winning the Wolf prize and a Fields medal. While some contestants definitely fare better than others, I can say from personal experience t
    • A feat worthy of congratulations, to be sure, but it has no bearing on the real world - though many, including Google, pretended that it does.

      Would you argue that intelligence has no bearing on the real world, or that successful competitive programmers aren't highly intelligent? Because your comment implies that you consider one or the other to be true.

    • I find that such competitions are generally pretty worthless... like math competitions. The ability to solve problems that, while "complex" , are still solveable in mere hours, is not really indicative of a truly great talent in either field, mathematics or computer programming.

      On the math side (I was in the national finals for the math olympiad here), I found that the competition relied on two things: Knowing more, but simple math than taught in school (for example, modulo algebra was really useful) and ha
    • How else would you celebrate the Art of Computer Science? What kind of exercises would you do to get your mind tuned to solve some of the finest Problems? btw,
      Why do you Climb a mountain?
      Because its there.       I for one, support these kind of events. Senthil

  • What did they do? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:37PM (#13652953)
    I would like to know what the winning entries where.

  • Obligatory USA question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vluther ( 5638 ) <vidNO@SPAMluther.io> on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:39PM (#13652964) Homepage Journal
    First of all,
      Congratulations to the winners.

    Now the "scandalous" question, where the entries from US programmers ranked. Last year, the winner was from Argentina, this year from Poland. So, all the talk about US losing the science front could be true.
    I don't want to take away from the people who won, or the countries and institutions that are educating them, but I live in USA, and I'm curious, how the contestants from here did.

    • Re:Obligatory USA question (Score:5, Informative)

      by CyricZ ( 887944 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:43PM (#13652992)
      The US never had a monopoly on education. I mean, don't forget that the earliest modern-style universities were formed in Europe around 1200. Many were operating for around 500 years before the US was even formed. Today many of those institutions have been around twice as long as the United States, let alone the American educational institutions.

      And before that there were centres of learning in Arabia, Egypt, Asia and Greece.

      • Re:Obligatory USA question (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The US never had a monopoly on education. I mean, don't forget that the earliest modern-style universities were formed in Europe around 1200. Many were operating for around 500 years before the US was even formed.

        While this is true it is also irrelevant. For relevant data look at the past 50 years. European higher education is getting worse and worse, in the US it's been getting better and better. There is a reason why the 17 of the top 20 universities in the world are in US.

        I'm German and go to a top
    • Maybe the US contestants outsourced for the challenge.
    • You're confusing 'driven' and 'smart.' 'Driven' means that coding can make you 10x what your neighbors do and you can live like a king, so you work your tail off to get up in the world through knowing as much as possible about coding.

      'Driven' people in the States are going to business school and meeting all the bigwigs' kids instead because you won't be able to pay off your student loans in the American computer industry for fifteen years instead of the five it takes you working in accounting / consultin
      • Yea, I thought it was something similar as well. But, what about the top coders in high school or college ? I'm sure the ones that are employed in US or Europe didn't really even attempt. But, what about the college kids, who are shepherded into competitions like this ?

        By their schools, or their own egos ?
        • Well, it's possible you're right, but you'd need to get ratios as to who was competing from where in this contest, and how often they had worked in this type of contest before. For reference on this kind of info, go check out the toplists on TopCoder.

      • Re:Obligatory USA question (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The unbelievably, incredibly, killer-code 'Smart' people in the States are either starting their own small businesses and don't have time for this kind of thing, making enough money that they don't want to take a huge time risk for a possible 10k, self-effacing enough that they don't care, or already working for Google, and therefore ineligible for participation.

        How condescending. Those factors apply to other countries too. The USA is not the only country where smart people start businesses. The USA

        • Whatever. Go check out the toplist on TopCoder. A shot at $40k / year in contests is an amazing salary in India, Eastern Bloc countries, or China. Here it won't buy you a house in the more populous states. You're wrong.
    • It doesn't matter. Any problem worth solving by the best programmers in the world take more then a couple hours and I'm sure they are paid well for it. TopCoder receives much criticism. It is mostly highschool aged students pushed by their respective schools so the school can get some local press. If anything this just shows that hopefully the really good programmers are off doing better things. Regardless, being able to make a program output a predetermined output given some input (every challenge in this
      • It is mostly highschool aged students pushed by their respective schools so the school can get some local press.

        This guy Cygan is from the Warsaw University, not from a high school. His colleagues from the same departament already won other prizes: ACM IPC [mimuw.edu.pl] and Top Coder 2003 [digitaljournal.com].

    • Re:Obligatory USA question (Score:4, Informative)

      by jdmetz ( 802257 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @04:46PM (#13653499) Homepage

      There were 3 competitors from the US in the top 10 (4th, 5th, and 8th). Also, there were more coders from the US in the finals than from any other country.

      I believe that Poland had the second largest contingent. Poland has been doing quite well in programming competitions, as the competitors there get press more like sports players do in the US, which attracts other talented people to the field.

    • It's worth pointing out that a significant number of the best US competitive programmers already work at Google. Myself included, along with many of my co-workers.

      You see less of a US force at the Google Code Jam simply because Google's already hired them. :)

  • 'best coders in the world'? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rkww ( 675767 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @03:43PM (#13652997)
    Hmm, The tournament [topcoder.com] is a timed contest where all participants compete online to solve the same problems under the same time constraints.

    Maybe I just me, but I don't see how being able to solve TopCoder-style problems makes you a great programmer. Great programmers write easy-to-understand, supportable code. This competition doesn't encourage that in any way.

    • Opponents of TopCoder like competitions often argue that because there is time pressure, writing easy to understand code is discouraged. From the little experience I have, I can definetly say that this is far from the truth. While you have produce the code quickly, it is also a great advantage that the code is clean for more than one reason.

      Cleanly written code is less likely to contain bugs or cause problems with special cases. Since a single mistake will cost all points this is more than enough reason to
    • Great programmers write easy-to-understand, supportable code.

      Agreed, but this is only one aspect of greatness. This contest reveals greatness in other aspects of being a "Great Programmer". Specifically, problem solving skills and/or quick access and implementation of common algorithms. Here's my Great Programmer checklist.
      1. Writes software that works. - DUH!
      2. Finds simple solutions to both simple and complex problems.
      3. Understands and demonstrates balance of code clarity. That is, the balance
    • ... how are you going to efficiently test/judge when you factor in *everything* that makes a great programmer ??

      I agree that style and design are very important (vital, in fact), but I think you're short-changing the the winners of this contest as well as the testing mechanism. A great programmer is indeed all of the things you described, but it's much harder/costlier to test those angles in an automated fashion. You can't "spin" metrics such as whether it compiles, lines of code, memory usage, and exec
    • While there is no cause-and-effect, there does appear to be some correlation - at least, if you want your coders to do research and solve previously unsolved problems. If you just want a code monkey, a highly-ranked Topcoder competitor is probably the last one you'd want to hire - he'd get bored and rewrite your database for fun.

      ('Course, it'd end up twice as fast and able to speak perfect English, but we'll ignore that for now. :) )
    • Good programmers write easy-to-understand, supportable code. Great programmers write code good programmers can't write. Some problems simply aren't easy to understand, no matter if expressed as code or as speech or equations. And no amount of experience, good programming habits or language expertise is going to replace great mind that can understand and solve the problem.
  • The winner is Marek Cygan from Warsaw University. Second prize goes to Erik-Jan Krijgsman from University of twente (Holland) and third to Pyotr Mitritchew from Moscow State University."

    Can someone Google for me the problems they had to solve? I'm not finding it.

  • All students? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ewasx ( 207402 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @04:05PM (#13653156)
    It strikes me as odd that all three winners are students. I mean, shouldn't an experienced coder be better at this kind of thing?

    This summer the company I work for wanted to hire some students for some simple programming job we would like to have done, but didn't have the time to do ourselves. To test if the student could really write some code, I create a small programming exercise, someting quite simple. I tested it on the programmers first, and they all took about 15 to 20 minutes to implement a working solution. The students got an hour to solve the problem, and only one of the about 20 applicants was able to solve the problem within the hour! So... are these student so much better? Or do the "real" programmers not compete in this contest?
    • I believe the code jam is only for students, although I might be wrong. I competed in it last year (when I was still a student) and made it to the final online round, before the free trip to Cali. Got a free Google T-shirt for my trouble. :-)
    • Most of the responses to this are right - the more experienced coders simply don't bother. I personally probably would still compete just to go hang out with these people, except the competitions are always local so I just drive by and bum around in the hotel with them. :)

      That said, there's also a lot of practice involved with this. I'm rusty and would probably drop out very early at this point - I just don't have the time to compete regularly (or, more precisely, it's not cost-effective for me.)

      As for your

  • Like rubiks cube or quake (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Psionicist ( 561330 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @04:06PM (#13653162)
    I compete in online programming contests. This does not mean I am a great programmer, or that the winner in these contents are. It does mean however, that the winner is familiar with lots of algorithms and when, where and how to use them. This is really what it's all about - applying algorithms you have learned, under pressure.

    Almost all of the more famous names in programming contents are the guys who, over the years, have practiced and solved thousands of programming problems such as the ones you can find at ACM and TopCoder. You don't have to be a super genius (if you are, you probably have better things to do) just stick with it. After a few hundred problems, you know how to do it. It's like rubiks cube and playing Quake.

    Whether it's geeky, useful, boring, fun or manual labour is what you make of it. :)
    • ... and in this case people are not interested in people who can solve a puzzlecube, but they're interested in finding people who can solve real problems in a short time.

      in order to solve a puzzle cube: train.
      in order to solve other problems: train :)

  • what info from this article? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by yagu ( 721525 ) * <{yayagu} {at} {gmail.com}> on Monday September 26, 2005 @04:24PM (#13653319) Journal

    The article caught my eye, I'm always curious about new and upcoming programmers and am a fan of Google. So, what great thing did the winner of this contest produce? Turns out, nothing. He won a contest in coding, which I'm not sure tells anybody much of anything.

    It's kind of like a spelling bee. Virtually anyone in the top x% is equally capable in spelling acumen. On any given day, any given playah could, or would be a winner in a spelling bee.

    Factors:

    • probability of having to spell a word you can't (I submit that all spelling bee participants have this same foible)
    • your mental and physical health at the time of the contest
    • judges

    I am sure the winner of this programming contest is bright, but I don't think it brings anything much to the programming/computer science world. But then, I guess it doesn't have to.

    Congratulations to the winner.

  • Go Marek (Score:1, Insightful)

    by absolutlactam ( 908853 )
    As has already been pointed out, this is the case where you have to be correct and quick about it. It's sad to see people deride the efforts of those who competed. All in all, it shouldn't be a surprise that Marek won, since the Polish universities have been doing quite well in the TopCoder competitions. It's likely that their professors actively encourage them to compete in TopCoder (especially considering the money), but the fact that they're able to consistently do it effectively is something to note.
  • He won! Yeah! A vague press release. This is the internet, least google could do is host the winning projects and post them online..

    -

  • Poland again (Score:2, Informative)

    by e-r00 ( 559774 )
    I just wanted to mention couple of things that might have influenced the recent results of polish programmers. Firstly, quite a few years ago a few people started to train promising young programmers in the art of algorithm design. Note, that they start very early, often in the primary school. These boys (usually) are trained by the best polish lecturers and older colleagues. Later, they often represent Poland in the international contests, with quite some achievements. But it's not only this group. Few y
  • It's time for them to start doing this... :)

  • What'd the kid do? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Colonel Panic ( 15235 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @05:43PM (#13653885)
    the blurb tells the names of the winner(s), but gives no clue as to what their project was.

  • How 'bout a real challenge? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mattizzle ( 918028 ) on Monday September 26, 2005 @05:50PM (#13653933)
    Solve increasingly difficult algorithmic problems within a set time period? How about write a piece of enterprise software with no requirements, users you've never met, an analyst who can barely check their email, and a project manager thinks unit-tests and documentation are "Version 2" features? Welcome to my hell, college boy!
  • Google should publish more info about the context. Which languages were used by the champion? Is there a correlation between the language and position in the contest? Without these info, we are missing a great ./ flamefest! How was the country distribution? Which regions of the world had more people among the 100 best?

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