September 08, 2006
I advanced to Round 1 of Google Code Jam 2006! Woohoo!
I am officially one of the top 1000 coders in the world (if we use Code Jam as a benchmark). Also, I'm the only contestant from the Philippines who was able to advance so I've been given the opportunity to solely represent my motherland (I'm equally proud and dismayed). The complete list of qualifiers can be found here; look for "punzki".
The elimination round for Code Jam was held last Wednesday, starting 12 AM (local time) and ending 24 hours later (Thursday midnight). I came home terribly exhausted from work on Tuesday night, and was ready to sleep (at 11:59 PM) when Akie messaged me on YM to remind me that the elimination round was starting a minute later. I really wanted to go to bed but I might not have even less energy if I take it Wednesday night so I went ahead and took it.
The elimination round had five sets of problems; I was assigned to Set 1. Each set had two problems: one worth 250, and a harder one worth 750. The faster you submit a solution to a problem, the more points you get, but if it fails the system test, you get no points for it (detailed rules here). I was able to do the 250-point problem very quickly and got 236.12 points, but the second problem (a variant of Little Bishops, except that there are some unusable squares) proved much more difficult. I had a correct solution, but it was too slow and exceeded the two-second time limit no matter how many times I tried to optimize it. I'll have to take a look at the solutions of those who got it correct to see where I went wrong.
Here are some quick statistics that may help those who are aspiring to get past the elimination round for Code Jam 2007:
That's the only advice I can provide; I wasn't able to get past Round 1 last year, though I did get a free Code Jam 2005 shirt. Unfortunately, this year, they'll only be sending shirts to the top 250 from Round 2. Well, I guess that means that I'll just have to make the top 250 this year, right? Wish me luck!
I am officially one of the top 1000 coders in the world (if we use Code Jam as a benchmark). Also, I'm the only contestant from the Philippines who was able to advance so I've been given the opportunity to solely represent my motherland (I'm equally proud and dismayed). The complete list of qualifiers can be found here; look for "punzki".
The elimination round for Code Jam was held last Wednesday, starting 12 AM (local time) and ending 24 hours later (Thursday midnight). I came home terribly exhausted from work on Tuesday night, and was ready to sleep (at 11:59 PM) when Akie messaged me on YM to remind me that the elimination round was starting a minute later. I really wanted to go to bed but I might not have even less energy if I take it Wednesday night so I went ahead and took it.
The elimination round had five sets of problems; I was assigned to Set 1. Each set had two problems: one worth 250, and a harder one worth 750. The faster you submit a solution to a problem, the more points you get, but if it fails the system test, you get no points for it (detailed rules here). I was able to do the 250-point problem very quickly and got 236.12 points, but the second problem (a variant of Little Bishops, except that there are some unusable squares) proved much more difficult. I had a correct solution, but it was too slow and exceeded the two-second time limit no matter how many times I tried to optimize it. I'll have to take a look at the solutions of those who got it correct to see where I went wrong.
Here are some quick statistics that may help those who are aspiring to get past the elimination round for Code Jam 2007:
- The lowest score that was able to qualify for Round 1 was a paltry 104.64. This was from Set 4, which had many qualifying scores in the low 100's.
- For Set 1 (my set), the lowest qualifying score (rank 200) was 201.86. I got 236.12, which was enough to rank me 76th in Set 1.
- For Set 1, only 27 were able to solve both problems. Four (ranked 28-31) got only the 750-point problem. All the rest (rank 32-200) were only able to solve the 250-pointer.
That's the only advice I can provide; I wasn't able to get past Round 1 last year, though I did get a free Code Jam 2005 shirt. Unfortunately, this year, they'll only be sending shirts to the top 250 from Round 2. Well, I guess that means that I'll just have to make the top 250 this year, right? Wish me luck!
great. do you have a copy of the problem set. im also from the philippines.