I sometimes get questions from people asking me about how to get into competition programming, how to practice, how to use the various problem archive websites and so forth, so I thought I’d write a blog explaining how it all works. Most of the practice and competition sites out there have very good guides for this very thing, so this post will mostly give a short description of your...
A lot of problems in the ACM and TopCoder competitions can be solved using a general search technique like breadth-first search (BFS). Many BFS type problems are represented with an initial grid and you want to determine whether you can achieve a certain state or grid configuration, possibly in the minimum number of moves. These problems are very popular and can vary in complexity, however, the...
I received confirmation last night that we did not make the 2010 programming finals. The Pacific Northwest region only received two spots this year, instead of the three it received the last two years. Only one region in North America, East Central NA, received three spots. That region had over 100 teams, while our region only had 82. Also, the top four teams solved all 8 problems, whereas UVic...
The UVic programming teams have recently been receiving some media coverage. Saanich News did an article on the guys and UVic released a small media tip about our performance at the Pacific Northwest regional competition a few weeks ago. Also, at our last practice, A Channel News came and filmed some of the session as well as interviewed myself and some of the guys on the team. They put together...
Still no word on whether the UVic Whites have made the 2010 ACM ICPC world programming finals in Harbin, China, but we’re going to forge ahead with practices as if we have made it. Based on everything I could research, we have a very good chance. In the last two years, there’s been 100 teams at the finals, and both times there’s been three from the Pacific Northwest region. UBC^...
The 2009 Pacific Northwest Regional Programming Competition happened this past Saturday. The Pacific Northwest region consists of teams from universities in BC, Washington State, Oregon, Hawaii, and northern California. Approximately 80 teams took part this past weekend. We left Friday afternoon to travel to Vancouver in a van that I rented. I felt a bit like a soccer mom, taking her 6 kids to a...
We’re having our last practice session tonight before the Pacific Northwest Regional competition happening this weekend. Our last few practices have not run as smoothly as I had hoped. After our moderate success in the ACPC competition a few weeks ago (see October 18th post), I had been hoping to try out some new team strategy ideas. However, students have been ill or have had other...
Last night we had our weekly Wednesday night practice session. Based on results from previous competitions, I’ve noticed that typically our top performing team is one problem short of a top tier spot in the contest. Also, in the ACPC competition from last Saturday, UVic White solved 8 problems without any errors, but they had some large gaps between submissions. As a result, we decided to...
The two UVic teams, Vikes White and Blue, participated in the Alberta Collegiate Programming Competition yesterday. The Whites team consisted of Dan Sanders, John Hawthorn, and Scott Porter, while the Blues had students Tim Song, Tristin Sturgess, and Tyler Cadigan. You can see the final scoreboard here. It was a great competition and turn out, 37 teams participated. Vikes White was the top...
Last Saturday, the two UVic teams participated in a practice session with teams from SFU, UBC, and Columbia university. Columbia was first overall with 6 problems solved, and two individuals from UBC also solved 6 to claim second and third. We had a bit of a rough start as some UVic team members were locked out of the building and arrived late. Also, the top UVic team was missing a member and the...
