Google Code Jam

[Kirby]

Thirty minutes to liftoff... Good luck, everyone

[Kirby]

Whew. Not fast enough, I guess. I worked on problems 1 and 2. Conceptually, they didn't seem very difficult. I ran into a couple of hiccups with getting the correct input for problem 2, and didn't get something submitted in time.

I guess I need to work on my speed.

I got problem 1 correct.

[Solomon]

Couldn't get to my home in time to do it (was teaching Go at Sakura-con since I had the day off today). I did read the problems on the bus though, and thought Problem C was pretty awesome (and it looked incredibly difficult, which judging from the stats looked like it was). See you guys at 1B!

[gamesorry]

Whew. Not fast enough, I guess. I worked on problems 1 and 2. Conceptually, they didn't seem very difficult. I ran into a couple of hiccups with getting the correct input for problem 2, and didn't get something submitted in time.

I guess I need to work on my speed.

I got problem 1 correct.

Almost same here I got a couple of hiccups for problem 1 due to some infinite loops, and then it took me too long to understand problem 2. Definitely need to work on my speed!

[Kirby]

Yeah, the wording on Problem 2 sucked. I spent several minutes thinking, "what in the world are you asking?"

[hyperpape]

"A Competitive Programmer's Handbook" was posted to Hacker News, for anyone who doesn't visit that site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14115826

[Kirby]

I majored in computer science and started to learn about computer science in 2002. It was pretty exciting to me at the time (mostly because of video games), but I learned about go - something that seemed even more interesting - around 2003, just a year and a half later.

Since then, programming wasn't something I was passionate about - just something I had to do to make money.

From this year's competition, programming has become interesting to me, again. I like that

[Solomon]

Anyone managed to advance to R2? I tried R1B, but only solved A (which isn't even enough for top 5000 ). Not sure if I have the motivation to wake up at 2am to try R1C, but we'll see...

Also, on an unrelated note, I got introduced to this really cool math channel on youtube called 3Blue1Brown, and it's full of awesome videos that I've been watching while eating dinner. They have a video where they talk about a very interesting way of generating the sequence needed to solve the Tower of Hanoi problem discussed earlier using binary numbers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SUvWfNJSsM

[Kirby]

Anyone managed to advance to R2? I tried R1B, but only solved A (which isn't even enough for top 5000 ). Not sure if I have the motivation to wake up at 2am to try R1C, but we'll see...

I didn't end up participating in R1B. We went to the Washington State Fair, instead. I have been practicing programming pretty much every day, though.

Particularly, I've been studying recursion problems. I think I have a weak point there. Actually, the bigger weak point is what Shaddy already pointed out - I think I have an idea of what to do, start programming, then realize I didn't think everything through. I'm trying to consciously think the problem through all the way before writing it up. That takes some effort, sometimes.

Not sure if I want to do R1C, given the time.

[Solomon]

I have been practicing programming pretty much every day, though.

Particularly, I've been studying recursion problems. I think I have a weak point there. Actually, the bigger weak point is what Shaddy already pointed out - I think I have an idea of what to do, start programming, then realize I didn't think everything through. I'm trying to consciously think the problem through all the way before writing it up. That takes some effort, sometimes.

Not sure if I want to do R1C, given the time.

Maybe we should have weekly Lifein19x19 competitions for programming, similar to your weekly tsumego rounds? I set up a contest using the Kattis platform with several problems that are recursive / DP in nature: https://open.kattis.com/contests/nhx45f/. I have it set to start this Friday 7pm PST and end on Sunday at 9pm (50 hours). If there's enough interest in this, I can create a separate thread in Off-Topic where we can discuss ideas and code. (And I promise I haven't done these problems before, so I'll definitely be giving them a shot ).

[Kirby]

Sure, I'll play

[HermanHiddema]

I haven't made an attempt yet. Round 1A started at 3am my time, and round 1B at 6pm on the Saturday of our big local go tournament, so neither was an option. Round 1C is at 11am on a Sunday, sounds perfect

[Shaddy]

That sounds like an awesome idea! I'll love to play. Also didnt get a shot at the last codejam round, but 1c should be alright.

[quantumf]

I'm hoping to do 1C as well, but these ultra short rounds are quite challenging to fit in when you've got other calls on your time. Couldn't do 1A/B. Definitely preferred the 24 hour prelim round.

[HermanHiddema]

I participated in 1C and solve A-small, A-large, B-small, B-large and C-small-1, which got me 516th place, qualifying for the next round.

Problems 1 and 2 were not hard, but took me way too long due to silly bugs, typos and whatnot. So I only had 30 minutes left for problem 3 and only attempted the first data set, which has an additional constraint making it much easier than the second.

Sadly, although I qualified, I won't be able to compete in the next round. I have a prior engagement exactly at that time