

Project Euler - Fun Math and Programming Problems - Bluem00
http://projecteuler.net/

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kobs
There's another website similar to this one: Sphere Online Judge (SPOJ) -
<http://www.spoj.pl/>. The problems are much more varied, though.

I can definitely see the utility in working on these type of problems: a list
of exercises to work through when learning a new language, or most of all,
improving your problem solving skills.

Sometimes I wonder though, why do some people enjoy working on (solved)
challenging problems -- rather than tackling something novel?

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mmp
It can be very interesting to see what other coders did and compare it with
your own solution, in the messageboard (when you solve a problem you get
access to the corresponding thread).

You can compare the actual algorithms and ways to approach the problem, of
course, and they can be very varied, so you end up learning a thing or two.
And the languages themselves, you can see their strengths and weaknesses in
particular areas. It stimulates curiosity and opening your mind to new ways of
doing things. I think that's important and valuable because when you think
about it, there aren't that many opportunities to do so.

Also, when you're tackling something novel, it seems to me you're going to
restrict yourself pretty early to tools you already know, and you're not going
to try radically new things once you're into it because the penalty would be
too high (I may be wrong though).

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jonp
Agreed. There's quite a diversity of solutions ranging from brute-force,
through "computer science" optimisations, to clever mathematics. And as
someone who had mainly programmed in various versions of Basic before it's
been eye-opening to see a range of different languages and their strengths and
weaknesses. In particular some of the solutions in J
(<http://www.jsoftware.com/>) struck me as quite remarkable.

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Bluem00
I'm addicted to this, but I've also considered using it as a source of content
for some interview problems.

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Tichy
I've started to do the exercises in Erlang now, which is also my first
practical experience with Erlang, and it is actually a lot of fun. Thanks for
posting!

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Tichy
The language statistics are interesting: big lead for C/C++. I wonder if those
are students forced to use C/C++ by their university, or if C/C++ is really
still that popular.

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Tichy
Nice idea, but somehow I have the impression that all the problems can be
solved in the same way (same brute force algorithm).

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jsomers
The trick is you need to solve them in less than a minute (of computer time,
of course). Believe me, it gets tricky.

52% complete, Rank 369 out of 7362.

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Tichy
I see - I missed that part ;-)

