Google Code Jam 2004

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Posted by michael on Thursday September 2, 2004 @12:06AM from the raspberry-jam dept.

cymen writes "Google's Code Jam 2004 is open for registration at TopCoder.com. Slashdot reported on the 2003 winner and Google has a Code Jam 2003 summary. Grab some caffeine and get hacking!"

18 of 209 comments (clear)

Google - what a great company by Slashbot+Hive-Mind · 2004-09-02 00:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

$10,000 for the winner, but the real prize is recognition amoung your peers. And it will help open source as well.

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1. Re:Google - what a great company by r.jimenezz · 2004-09-02 00:44 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  And it will help open source as well.
  I thought the kind of exercises used in these competitions were rather contrived and "hard" computer science problems... I am not sure the concepts developed could be easily applied to, say, developing a better desktop or interoperating better with proprietary applications/file formats.
  However some of the FOSS community best hackers could register and donate any prizes they net to their projects ;)
  
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I think I speak for all of us when I say by PatrickThomson · 2004-09-02 00:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Mmm... Jam...

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Jimmy! by mfh · 2004-09-02 00:14 · Score: 5, Interesting

There was an interesting comment and rebuttal in the 2003 winners article on Slashdot that basically stated Google was above the other big corporations out to make a buck, because Google makes you feel good for donating time to their cause. Okay that was 2003. My question is that now Google has gone public, has the mood change very much? I still have a good feeling about them, and I use their services every day, including the search engine (GIS, web search) and Gmail. I'm just wondering if coders feel that $10k is enough money now that the profits have grown so much. I could see them offering $100k to the winner without batting an eye. Are they awarding enough to first place?

FTA: During the Challenge Phase, competitors view each other's code and try to "break'" that code by passing test cases through the submitted code, with the hope that the results are not satisfied by the software written. Breaking another developer's code is the most direct form of competition for a programmer. In this phase, points are awarded for successful challenges and deducted for unsuccessful challenges.

To me, it's more important to measure the potential of a programmer, more than the experience of the programmer. Creating new ideas and systems does not require experience alone -- it requires a great deal of potential. Simply breaking and fixing code in a realtime setting is good for the day to day stuff (and that is valuable for Google), but when a customer or boss asks to you build something new and difficult, many experienced programmers answer with, "that can't be done" when less experienced programmers will try to do it, with limited success.

Does anyone know if Jimmy Mardell was hired by Google?

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1. Re:Jimmy! by Quixote · 2004-09-02 00:33 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Google Codejam is a programming contest, and not a contest to develop a neat application for Google. The problems in the CodeJam are more like puzzles. You are confusing this with the other contest that Google had (the URL for which escapes me) where they gave 10K for the best use of Google.
2. Re:Jimmy! by Brian+Quinlan · 2004-09-02 01:15 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  To me, it's more important to measure the potential of a programmer, more than the experience of the programmer. Creating new ideas and systems does not require experience alone -- it requires a great deal of potential. Simply breaking and fixing code in a realtime setting is good for the day to day stuff (and that is valuable for Google), but when a customer or boss asks to you build something new and difficult, many experienced programmers answer with, "that can't be done" when less experienced programmers will try to do it, with limited success.
  
  I did the Google Code Jam last year and found that they required a lot more than basic coding skills.
  
  One question involved analysing sequences of resource lock and unlocks, represented by upper- and lowercase characters in strings e.g. "ABba", "BAba" and "CADadBbc". Given such strings, you had to write a program to identify potential deadlock conditions e.g. the first two strings can deadlock at position 1 because the first string will hold a lock for A while waiting for B and the second string will hold a lock for B while waiting for A. Of course the real tests were more difficult than this. I think that less than 10 people out of 250 got this one.
  
  Another question involved graph searching but with the cost of node traversal changing with time according to a pseudorandom algorithm. My solution was only twenty or thirty lines of code but it took a while to think how to do a time-based graph search.
  
  The challenge phase is fairly challenging (excuse the pun) as well because you only have thirty minutes to make all of your challenges and you lose points if you are incorrect i.e. you claim that a certain valid input combination will cause the program to fail and it doesn't. Thirty minutes is not a lot of time to attack the 30 potentially flawed solutions that you are looking at. You have to pick a set of likely flaws (based on your own design) and quickly scan each set of code for it. Then, when you find a likely candidate, you have to read it in detail to make sure that you aren't wrong.
  
  My point is that the Google Code Jam is for more than experienced programmers who can quickly bash out simple algorithms - you have to be able to devise novel algorithms under time pressure and devise strategies based on the psycology of your fellow coders
Why not... by StevenHenderson · 2004-09-02 00:14 · Score: 5, Interesting

The 500 participants in Round 1 will receive a "Google Code Jam 2004, Powered by TopCoder" t-shirt. The top five scorers in the Championship Round will receive the following cash prizes

Why don't they offer something like a job interview for those old enough to take it? Or even a job for the winner (with restrictions, of course)? Imagine how many people would rather work for Google than have the cash prize.
1. Re:Why not... by upside · 2004-09-02 00:24 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  They seem to imply something like what you suggest with "You might win some cash. You might wind up changing the world at Google yourself"
  
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In case of slashdotting by chris_eineke · 2004-09-02 00:20 · Score: 4, Funny

Google Cache
;)

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Caffeine by Threni · 2004-09-02 00:21 · Score: 4, Interesting

Why would I want to `grab some caffeine`? Surely a good nights sleep is more conducive to concentration?
Help me win by nearlygod · 2004-09-02 00:32 · Score: 4, Funny

I'm offering $2,500 to anyone who can give my a idea that goes on to win. I am also offering $2,500 to anyone who can impliment said idea so that it results in winning the contest. Any takers?

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1. Re:Help me win by attam · 2004-09-02 01:06 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  undisputable proof that bill gates does read /.
No Perl? by CaptainBaz · 2004-09-02 00:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

Use Java, C++, C# or VB.NET.

No Perl?

No Python?

No ("cool" hacker language of the day)?

How many real geeks are they going to attract?
1. Re:No Perl? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-02 00:48 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  It is because those are the languages supported by TopCoder, which runs the coding challenges for many different corporate sponsors. Google's tournament just happens to be one of the higher-profile ones out there.
2. Re:No Perl? by lachlan76 · 2004-09-02 01:04 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  with VB6, which was a steaming pile of crap
  
  VB6 has helped me quite a lot - NOTHING else has motivated me to learn C++ like VB6. *NOTHING*
Re:oh great by attam · 2004-09-02 00:44 · Score: 5, Insightful

have you ever done a topcoder competition? it's about speed AND accuracy. sure the fastest person gets the most points, but a) if your code doesn't pass their system tests you get ZERO points and b) other people can look at your code, try to find faults and challenge it. if they challenge you and your stuff breaks (takes more than allotted amount of time, gets a corner case wrong etc) they get bonus points and you lost your points. i think this is a pretty neat system, and i dont think it's advocates bad practices. remember, these problems are designed to be solved quickly.
Re:Quebecians by Zardoz44 · 2004-09-02 01:07 · Score: 4, Informative

I can't give you the details why, off the top of my head, but this is a standard rule for most contests in Canada or North America. There are special lottery rules in Quebec. It's been this way for as long as I care to remember.
What those rules are, I don't know. I could look, but I don't really care.
Challenge #1: Re-write the interface by Tarwn · 2004-09-02 01:42 · Score: 4, Informative

yep, thefirst challenge will be to rewrite the TopCoder interface to convince it that it does not need 100% of the CPU...that 5-10 second pauses while your typing code should NOT occur...that in a timed competition it is not reasonable to make someone go back and retype something 5 lines earlier simplybecause the interface froze up...

I mean crashes are on thing, you would expect the connection to get lost occasionally (try every time I have tried to do a practice problem), but c'mon, who hosts a coding competition with an interface that idles at 100% CPU usage?

-T

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