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Introduction to Competitive Programming
chrisjrn writes "Last year, I unexpectedly found myself entered in the Australian Computer Programming Competition, and somehow did well in it. As a result I decided to write a guide as an introduction, for high school-level students (and others, I suppose,) into the world of programming competitively based on my experience, and how to go about successfully competing in competitions." Article looks like a good start, I'm sure Slashdot readers can add many more tidbits of wisdom.
- ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest: http://icpc.baylor.edu/icpc/ (Big competition between colleges worldwide - sort of the equivalent of the IOI at the university level).
- TopCoder: http://www.topcoder.com/tc (weekly matches, yearly competition with large cash prize, also hosts the Google Code Jam (http://google.com/codejam)).
My team competed (and won first place in) several high school computer programming contests at the colleges in New England back in my day (Plymouth State, St. Anselm, etc). I'm not sure what today's competitions look like, but the team concept made things work here. I was the code monkey of the group, and the rest had their own strengths. Prior to my coming onboard, the team continually lost - not because they weren't smart, but they weren't complete. They were very strong in figuring out solutions to problems, while I was very strong at taking those solutions and laying them out in code. That's one of the reasons I'm suspicious of the 'one-man' competitions, as real-life work challenges are often team-oriented. As adults, most of us have learned to wear many of the different hats (problem solving, mathematics, coding, etc), but building a strong team based on members' strengths still usually makes the difference between mediocre products and works of art. That's just my 2c.
Now there's a scary yearbook shot
Want to get involved with some competitive programming, right now?
TopCoder is always looking for more members. The algorithm compeitions only take a few hours, and can pay good money. Plus discussion of the algorithms afterwards with the other members can be quite enlightening.
They also do design and development competitions, which take a bit longer, but pay a lot better. You can also pick up cash by being a reviewer for these compeitions, if you pick up enough "scratch" in the compeitions themselves.
You get individually rated on each of the 3 competitions and TC also provides some measure of employment services.
Back when algorithm competitions always paid, I earned my 1/2 of rent through them. After I graduated from college I paid my bills through a combination of design / development / reviewing. Now I work for TopCoder as a salaried employee.
Check it out, and look me up. My member handle is the same as my /. handle, just without the spaces.
TopCoder can be very rewarding. I hope every programmer that reads this at least looks at the website.
As opposed to the non-intellectual circle jerk that makes up most high school sports? These are students that like to program, ar probably good at it, and enjoy some competition. You can compete in almost everything. Chess, cooking, football, programming, rock climbing, gardening... If it drives you to become better at something you love, whats wrong with it?
Competitive programming can be addicting, I started on highschool just for fun on a small local contest, then me and my mate moved to the national olympiads, we were there just for the fun of it, but i actually got a good place. Then it started to get addicting, we were participating on every kind of contest, i won the national olympiad that year and therefore went to the International Olympiads in Informatics. This year i went to the IOI again. Just a word of wisdom, do _NOT_ get carried away by these contestes, they are good for fun but if you get addicted, they can even harm your studies.