2005 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship

Fortran IV writes "Registration is open for the 2005 Google U.S. Puzzle Championship, Saturday, June 18. Two winners will join Team USA at the 2005 World Puzzle Championship in Eger, Hungary (tourist info here if you read Hungarian). If you're the type who plays 12 simultaneous chess games in your head while debugging code and memorizing logarithm tables, you might have a chance of teaming up with last year's champ Roger Barkan (previous Slashdot coverage). If you just like puzzles, register here for the most intense (and fastest) 2-1/2 hours of the year. For a faint shadow of the real thing, take the practice test, which Barkan can probably complete in about 8 minutes; for a true challenge, the complete 2004 test is still available."

Comments

Re:I obviously could never compete.

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

The password for the practice test is kronos.

There's a link to the password below.

Re:Finished (with all correct)...

[zerbot]

Scissors are on the allowed materials list.

Re:Finished (with all correct)...

[Fortran IV]

I have no idea how the champions can churn through 25 of these in two and a half hours--that's one every six minutes. Yikes!

I competed myself last year; I submitted 8 correct answers and no wrong ones, finishing well out of the top 50%; I eventually solved 18 of the 25 puzzles, but only over the course of several days.

I believe that the people who solve these in 2-1/2 hours are doing nearly all the work in their heads, whether it's a rolling block puzzle or a crossword, then simply scribbling down the entire solution at once. A fantastic memory--swift, accurate, and strongly visual--is a definite advantage in this competition (an advantage I don't have).

More than a little mathematical background isn't unhelpful either. For one puzzle I did solve last year, #19 "Point Pairs", it's helpful to know more Pythagorean triplets than 3,4,5. I did it rather quickly (that is, in under an hour) but it was one of the 5 least solved puzzles last year.

What little advice I can offer:

• Have lots of sharpened pencils, scratch paper, and a good eraser waiting.
• Go to the bathroom just before time for the test.
• Print more than one copy of the test.
• Don't wait for the last page to print before you start working on the first page.
• If you're married or involved, get your SO to take the kids to the zoo for the afternoon, so you have peace and quiet to work. For the rest of you, lock the basement door and tell your parents not to knock for the next 2-1/2 hours.