Google Programming Contest

Hariny and I conducted an on-site programming contest, on behalf of Google, in our college today. It was an ACM style programming contest, which we ran using the PC^2 judging system. Here’s an account of the contest:

 

• 1 PM – Hariny and I head to the DCSE Lab for setting up the contest
• 1.05 PM – The first problem surfaces – misunderstanding as to lab timing. Lab attendants ask us to pack up by 3.30
• 1. 30 PM – Hariny heads off to get it resolved with the help of the staff while I start getting the lab ready for the contest.
• 2 PM – We get time till 5.30 PM, decide to cut short the contest to three hours
• 2.15 PM – First trickle of participants. Third years and one very enthu first year team arrive.
• 2.28 PM – 16 teams take up their position in the lab for the contest
• 2.30 PM – Contest Start!
• 2.45 PM – Most teams go for the obviously easy first equation, which was to write a program to add 1 to a 100 digit number.

• 2.48 PM – Many teams get Wrong Answer, as a result of improper spacing and not noting that the answer can be more than 100 digits.
• 2.50 PM – Our first Accepted Submission of the contest! Swarna Prakash and team take the lead with the first question.
• 2.55 PM – Six teams solve the easy problem A, with Swarna Prakash and co, Aravind Narayanan and co and Nishant Rayan teams taking the top spots.
• 3.00 PM – More teams solve the easy and even more teams get it wrong.
• 3. 10 PM – Swarna Prakash and team solve another question, the second most easy question in the set. They get a penalty due to a wrong submission, though. However, they are still in the lead.
• 3.45 PM – Aravind Narayanan and Madhan solve the easy problem D.
• 3.50 PM – Many teams try the D problem and get WAs.
• 4.00 PM – A couple of flawed submissions for the problem C. This was a problem of medium difficulty, with the answer not so obvious.
• 4.10 PM – Sivaguru, Smrithi and Thanu solve problem D to become the third ranked team
• 4.15 PM – Swarna Prakash and team solve the problem C in a single submission! Runaway leaders now.
• 4. 30 PM – Surendar and team solve problem D to join the list of teams having solved 2 problems.
• 4.40 PM- 12 teams out of the 16 solve problem A.
• 4.50 PM – Sridhar and team solve 2 problems very fast to jump to third place on the ranklist.
• 5.00PM – Aravind Narayanan and team unsuccessfully try to solve problem E.
• 5.05 PM – Current positions : First, Swarna Prakash and team. Second, Aravind and team. Third, Sridhar and team.
• 5.15 PM – Six teams have solved 2 problems or more.
• 5.20 PM – Last minute submissions from various teams, none of which get accepted.
• 5.30 PM – Contest end!

Podium Finishes:

1. Swarna Prakash, Santhana Krishnan and Sunil Kumar, all ECE Third Year.
2. Aravind Narayanan and Madhan R, CSE 4th year
3. Sridhar and Sai Saravanan, CSE 4th Year

Prizes:

1. Winners get a chance to visit Google R&D , Bangalore Plus T shirts of course
2. Runners up get laptop shoulder bags and Ts

Ts for the third team. We also gave away Ts to an enthusiastic first year team

Congratulations to the winners. Hope the participants had a great time! We really enjoyed conducting the competition

Check here for all the photos.