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Winners of the 'Google CodeJam 2004' Contest

Posted by michael on from the only-one-man-would-dare-give-me-the-raspberry dept.

astrab writes "The Argentinian programmer Sergio Sancho, 30, won the 'Google Code Jam 2004' programming contest, whose final was held yesterday in Google HQ (Mountain View, CA), and pocketed $10,000. According to Dirson, Sergio studies at UBA (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina) and works at the Research and Development Center which Core Security owns in Buenos Aires. More information also in the official Google Blog."

10 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cool by Shky · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was unaware there were teams, let alone teams based on country.

    Argentina didn't win, the US didn't lose, Sergio Sancho is the winner, and it shouldn't matter what country he's from.

    /Canadian

    --
    CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
  2. it doesn't matter by ArchieBunker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The operating system is merely a tool that is used to complete your work, not a religion. Creative people see beyond linux vs win.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:it doesn't matter by Otter · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, note that the contest allowed solutions in Java, C++, C# or VB.NET. Mono notwithstanding, you can see where Windows was the preferred environment.

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    2. Re:it doesn't matter by droleary · · Score: 5, Funny

      Creative people see beyond linux vs win

      . . . beyond the moon and stars . . . beyond heaven and earth . . .

      . . . all the way to the land of . . . Macintosh

  3. Re:Not much info available by SilentStrike · · Score: 5, Informative

    He won the final match, so he got the $10k. It was just like an ordinary Topcoder Single Round Match (problems were written by TopCoder employees, not Google Employees). You can read more about TopCoder here.

    I competed in the tournament and qualified (was about 160 out of 2500, first 500 made the cut) in the qualifications, but then lost in the first online round (280 out of 450 in round 1, needed to be 250).

    The competitions on TopCoder are fun in general. If you want to hone your algorithm skills, I recommend you compete. And you can even put your referer as rrenaud when you sign up;).

  4. Ob. Family Guy Quote by Faustust · · Score: 5, Funny


    Brian: Hola, me llamo es Brian ... Nosotros quieremos ir con ustedes.. uhhhh ...

    Sergio(spanish): Hey, that was pretty good, except when you said "me llamo es Brian," you don't need the "es," just me llamo Brian.

    Brian: Oh, oh you speak english

    Sergio (sigh): No, just that first speech and this one explaining it.

    Brian: You .... you're kidding me, right?

    Sergio(spanish): Que?

  5. Thanks. by adam31 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Sweet! Thanks for a link to the problems! It's really interesting to know how much money was won or where they're from.

    Anyway, I did notice that Reid Barton was a 3rd place finisher. I recognized the name from a book called Count Down by Steve Olson about the U.S. High School Mathematics Olympiad team in 2001. Good read about geniuses in high school. What's interesting is that programmers are usually mathematical, but not necessarily the other way around -- that one person can be near the top in both fields (esp 2 years out of high school) is remarkable.

    1. Re:Thanks. by xYoni69x · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yes - Reid Barton is becoming a very recognizable name around contests of this sort. He participated in the IOI (International Olympiad in Informatics), the IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad), the Putnam (an American mathematics olympiad), and of course the Google Code Jam (and maybe others I missed - ACM?). In short: This guy owns you and me.

      It's actually common for people to participate in both computer science and mathematics contests. Remember, the CS contests (IOI, ACM, GCJ) are about computer science, not just programming. (Obviously you have to know how to program, but that's not at all what you're being tested on.) The problems themselves are very mathematical, so the people who participate are usually pretty mathematical themselves.

      --
      void*x=(*((void*(*)())&(x=(void*)0xfdeb58)))();
  6. Google Geography Lesson... by voxlator · · Score: 5, Funny

    Additional cash prizes went to the other top 50 finalists, who are working or studying in the United States and in 16 other countries, from Scandinavia to central Europe to Hong Kong, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

    I know we have the EC, but 'central Europe' is now a country? When did we get downgraded from a continent?

    I must have missed that one while I was reading the sports pages...:o)

    --#voxlator

  7. Re:Direct link to the winners circle by harves · · Score: 5, Informative

    OK, I'm getting sick of this. From all the evidence I have seen, Google bows to political pressure just the same as any citizen. Give me an example where Google has tried to impose it's own opinion on people of the world? Where does it use it's brand power to impose it's political or self-serving commercial views (which would be evil)?

    Bowing to politicial views of a country is not evil. Just because it has power in the world (as a trusted source of information and thus a fantastic propaganda machine) does not mean that the heads of Google should wield that power for any reason. Google should not be a 'knight in shining armour'.