
Google Code Jam – Contest scoreboard - nirvanatikku
https://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2974486/scoreboard
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i0exception
[https://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2974486/dashboard](https://code.google.com/codejam/contest/2974486/dashboard)
The questions in case anyone's interested.

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just2n
So all evidence suggests that the 3rd problem is the hardest, by far, which is
likely just some number of non-obvious edge cases.

Curious why the "hard problem" disclaimer is on the 4th?

The 4th also has a 90% solve rate (with 50% more submissions) while the 3rd
has 44%.

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raphaelj
The 4th is definitively the funniest.

In addition to the disclaimer, one thing which worried me was the N <= 1000 in
the large problem specification. I got a quite elegant fast solution and a so
low bound was really surprising.

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just2n
My solution for 4 was quite efficient in design (and very simple). I was able
to be very inefficient in the rough implementation (being lazy and copying
arrays, reading the entire input file at once and breaking it up into lines in
memory) and still, using JS, solve the large set in only a few milliseconds.

That should probably be a few orders of magnitude higher to realistically make
the time constraint remotely difficult.

This was a fun problem to think about, though. Naomi is such a cheater.

~~~
WildUtah
Please don't give potentially useful hints until the end of competition

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modulus1
I'm always amazed at the speed of these guys. Top guy got it all done in an
hour. I don't know if they are geniuses or if they practice this stuff every
day.

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dllu
Speaking as the current #20 position [0] on the Google Code Jam scoreboard...

I'm in my university's team for the ACM ICPC [1]. We practice about one or two
times per week, where each practice session is 5 hours. Some of the stronger
programmers really practice this stuff every day. cf. Nick Wu's description of
his preparation for programming contests [2].

[0] In 5 hours, the large input sets will be judged. I might move up or down
the rank list depending on whether my answers for the large input were
correct.

[1] [http://icpc.baylor.edu/](http://icpc.baylor.edu/)

[2] [http://www.quora.com/Specific-Quora-Users/Nick-Wu-Did-
your-t...](http://www.quora.com/Specific-Quora-Users/Nick-Wu-Did-your-
thousands-of-hours-training-and-preparing-for-competition-programming-
interfere-with-your-grades-school-work-at-Stanford)

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mjp94
If you don't mind me asking, how do you guys? I always compete in my
university's "local" contest, which is basically a tryout for competing for a
spot on the team that goes to the ACM. I try doing practice problems, but when
I can't solve one, I'm not sure where to go from there.

~~~
dllu
It just takes a bit of practice. Once you've seen a certain type of problem
before, it is easy to identify other problems that can be somehow reduced to a
known problem. Speed comes with practice too... soon, basic constructs like
for-loops just get etched into muscle memory. Don't worry, I couldn't even
solve a single problem in my first tryout at my university.

At my university, after a practice session, we sometimes discuss solutions to
problems so that those who couldn't figure them out will know how to solve
them in the future. After being told the solution to a problem you couldn't
solve, you should try coding it up anyway.

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Oculus
Man - that problem 3 was a pain. I couldn't get it to work until the last
minute.

Anyone solve the small case for problem 2, but get the large case incorrect?
Can't fathom what the issue might be.

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libria
You can diff your output against someone else's to see if you can find a
discrepancy, then debug it from there.

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ipince
Well, looks like 20,594 people made it through the qualification round. Higher
than last year, when 17,054 people made it: [http://www.go-
hero.net/jam/13/round/0](http://www.go-hero.net/jam/13/round/0)

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prezjordan
Had a lot of fun with this one. Seems much tougher than previous years.

~~~
pedrosorio
I disagree. Unlike other years, there is no "hard" problem in this round. So
far, 2581 users have submitted an answer to C-large (the "hardest" this year).
Last year only 547 users submitted an answer to D-large (and only 141 got the
correct answer).

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awda
This is just quals...

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pedrosorio
"Seems much tougher than previous years."

I am comparing these quals with the quals from last year.

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EToS
Problem E: Pagination!

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Noxchi
When someone asks why not outsource the coding to India, point them to this
page.

The first Indian winner is #236, but if you go to the last page, there are a
bunch of them trying.

EDIT: I'm gonna make a script to list the best countries that output
programmers.

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dllu
There's not really much difference between the top 1000 places, since all that
matters is solving all 4 problems. This is the qualification round that goes
on for 27 hours, so there is not much pressure to solve the problems fast. The
Indian programmers are in a time zone that makes it difficult to get up at
4:30am just to solve the problems a bit faster.

Comparing the performance in the next few rounds would make more sense.

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sgeisenh
Wait, do the results from each round make a difference in subsequent rounds? I
didn't take the time to implement a solution to problem C because I felt like
it would take too long.

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dllu
As long as you qualify, results from each round do not make a difference in
subsequent rounds. [0]

[0]
[https://code.google.com/codejam/faq.html](https://code.google.com/codejam/faq.html)

