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Google Code Jam 2005 Winners Announced
Ember writes "The results of Google Code Jam are in. The winner is Marek Cygan from Warsaw University. Second prize goes to Erik-Jan Krijgsman from University of twente (Holland) and third to Pyotr Mitritchew from Moscow State University." Registration for the event took place back in July and Google reported a total of 14,500 registrants which is almost twice as many as last year, making for some stiff competition.
It doesn't surprise me that Google continues to increase Brain Drain in other big IT-focused companies (Microsoft, etc).
Google seems to realize that information is the most valuable commodity now and in the future. While most companies fight to contain their hold of old information, Google invests in new ways to sort and distribute the information others have created.
Programming is the real weapon of the war to produce information and sort it. By enabling programmers to compete, for profit, Google finds a huge new resource: ideas. What will the next information gathering or sorting device be? Hiring 15,000 people would cost millions. Forcing them to compete cost $10k.
Unfortunately, this is counter-productivity for most folk here. 15000 people just worked for free, and Google reaped the short term benefits. It'll be interesting to see how Google utilizes the optimized routines of non-winners, if they're allowed to.
I find that such competitions are generally pretty worthless... like math competitions. The ability to solve problems that, while "complex" , are still solveable in mere hours, is not really indicative of a truly great talent in either field, mathematics or computer programming. It is simply indicative of a great talent of coming up with elegant solutions to very small, localized problems. Fine for the competition, but winning gives little reason that this young man will be any more successful a programmer than any other in the contest.
A feat worthy of congratulations, to be sure, but it has no bearing on the real world - though many, including Google, pretended that it does.
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I would like to know what the winning entries where.
First of all,
Congratulations to the winners.
Now the "scandalous" question, where the entries from US programmers ranked. Last year, the winner was from Argentina, this year from Poland. So, all the talk about US losing the science front could be true.
I don't want to take away from the people who won, or the countries and institutions that are educating them, but I live in USA, and I'm curious, how the contestants from here did.
*sigh* This contest is put on by a company known as "TopCoder". TopCoder is an online Java Applet that allows contestants to compete against each other on a time to solution. Results are automatically checked through a set of Unit tests. As long as your program can produce the correct output for a given type of input, it will be considered correct.
Sun, IBM, and many others have sponsored TopCoder competitions in the past. They have since backed off of them. I'm not certain as to the reasons, but TopCoder has received a LOT of criticism. The problem with their approach is that it only proves that the coder can think and type fast. It does nothing to address teamwork, cleanliness of code, design capabilities, engineering ability, or many other areas that are critical to a real world programming job. These contests can be a fun way to compete with your peers, but my guess is that a lot of companies have found that placing too much empahsis on the results is a good way to get burned.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Maybe I just me, but I don't see how being able to solve TopCoder-style problems makes you a great programmer. Great programmers write easy-to-understand, supportable code. This competition doesn't encourage that in any way.
Better. You can go and play them yourself. It's usually something like, "Find the fourth numeric digit in a string passed" or "create an implementation of data transform XYZ." Nothing too tremendously difficult, so you have to be a fast typer with excellent accuracy. Producing a low number of runtime bugs significantly helps as well.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
It strikes me as odd that all three winners are students. I mean, shouldn't an experienced coder be better at this kind of thing?
This summer the company I work for wanted to hire some students for some simple programming job we would like to have done, but didn't have the time to do ourselves. To test if the student could really write some code, I create a small programming exercise, someting quite simple. I tested it on the programmers first, and they all took about 15 to 20 minutes to implement a working solution. The students got an hour to solve the problem, and only one of the about 20 applicants was able to solve the problem within the hour! So... are these student so much better? Or do the "real" programmers not compete in this contest?
I compete in online programming contests. This does not mean I am a great programmer, or that the winner in these contents are. It does mean however, that the winner is familiar with lots of algorithms and when, where and how to use them. This is really what it's all about - applying algorithms you have learned, under pressure.
:)
Almost all of the more famous names in programming contents are the guys who, over the years, have practiced and solved thousands of programming problems such as the ones you can find at ACM and TopCoder. You don't have to be a super genius (if you are, you probably have better things to do) just stick with it. After a few hundred problems, you know how to do it. It's like rubiks cube and playing Quake.
Whether it's geeky, useful, boring, fun or manual labour is what you make of it.
The article caught my eye, I'm always curious about new and upcoming programmers and am a fan of Google. So, what great thing did the winner of this contest produce? Turns out, nothing. He won a contest in coding, which I'm not sure tells anybody much of anything.
It's kind of like a spelling bee. Virtually anyone in the top x% is equally capable in spelling acumen. On any given day, any given playah could, or would be a winner in a spelling bee.
Factors:
I am sure the winner of this programming contest is bright, but I don't think it brings anything much to the programming/computer science world. But then, I guess it doesn't have to.
Congratulations to the winner.
As has already been pointed out, this is the case where you have to be correct and quick about it. It's sad to see people deride the efforts of those who competed. All in all, it shouldn't be a surprise that Marek won, since the Polish universities have been doing quite well in the TopCoder competitions. It's likely that their professors actively encourage them to compete in TopCoder (especially considering the money), but the fact that they're able to consistently do it effectively is something to note. After all, these are the people who cracked Enigma during the Second World War.
The US never had a monopoly on education. I mean, don't forget that the earliest modern-style universities were formed in Europe around 1200. Many were operating for around 500 years before the US was even formed.
While this is true it is also irrelevant. For relevant data look at the past 50 years. European higher education is getting worse and worse, in the US it's been getting better and better. There is a reason why the 17 of the top 20 universities in the world are in US.
I'm German and go to a top German university (Working on my PhD) but I've got a Masters from a middle of the range US university and the US university was supperior in so many ways it's not even funny.
Ok, I guess i did miss your point, here is why it is funny:
Before the 2004 election there were 3 scheduled debates between John Kerry and W. John Karey was talking about the lack of countries in the Iraq alliance and listed off a few. Bush came back with "you forgot Poland". It was a pretty funny moment as the inclusion of polands 500 or whatever troops doesn't do much to refute kerry's point and actually pulls more attention on the fact that the US is in there alone.
Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
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