Google India Code Jam 2006

This is the second time I competed in Google India Code Jam. The last year GIJC can be found here: Google India Code Jam 2005.

Summary of this year GICJ06

The format of the competition was still similar with last year GICJ05. There are 3 rounds total: Qualification Round, Online Elimination Round, and the Onsite Final Round (see below for the details of each round). The cut-off for the Qualification Round is top 500 participants and top 50 participants for Online Elimination Round. The total registered participants for this year GICJ06 is 14,000 participants and only those top 50 in Elimination Round were invited to the Onsite Final Round. To see who passed the Qual, Elimination Round, and the Winners of GICJ06 you can visit the Official List of the Advancers.

The Qualification round was held on March 20-21, 2006. There are 5 sets of problems randomly assigned to the 14,000 registered participants. The qual went a whole day but the coding time only last 1 hour after the qual problem was opened in the Arena. There was so many cheaters were caught and disqualified by the experienced TopCoder admins.

The Elimination Round was held on March 24, 2006. The top 500 participants that passed the Qualification Round can compete in this Elimination Round. The format of the elimination round is similar to the weekly SRM held by TopCoder. All participants must login and register at the specified time and compete together. The coding phase last for 75 minutes, all participants were given 3 problems. There was a challenge phase after the coding phase where all participants can look their competitors' source code and "challenge" it. If the challenge is successful, the challenger got +50 points otherwise the challenger loss -25 points.

The Onsite Championship Round was held on April 7, 2006. The top 50 participants that passed the Elimination Round were invited to Bangalore (India) to compete in this Onsite Championship Round. The duration for the Championship Round is longer than the usual 75 minutes (it was extended to 100 minutes). The 50 participants were split to two locations but they were all in the same room in the Arena. There are 3 problems given in this round (300 points, 500 points, 1000 points) just like the Elimination Round. During the challenge phase, many participants experienced a little inconvenience. The arena got timed-out several times and the participants must re-login again.

Before and after the onsite championship round, Google had several techtalks. They explained the vision/mission of Google, the technologies that Google posses, the Google infrastructure/architecture, the Google culture, etc... Also Google gave the 50 onsite finalist opportunity to have interviews for job at Google. Last year (GICJ05) Google didn't offer interview for the 50 finalist.

This year, Google did a lot of improvements compared to last year GICJ05. The events were well prepared and places were a lot bigger and nicer (Le Meridien) and they have I-Pod Nano as a surprise prize for all 50 finalist! I think in total, Google spent a LOT more money than last year to make Google India Code Jam 2006 a memorable event! They also have a "cameraman" to documentate the GICJ06 events (They will upload it through Google Video, I'll update when it's available). GICJ is the best and most generous Programming Competitions I've ever had! Thanks GOOGLE!

Pictures

These are the pictures that I think is great to be included in the main page:

Detailed, day to day story of GICJ06

For a detailed, day to day life of the GICJ06 onsite final, below I present my (personal) story about it. I have pictures for the stories, thanks to my friend who lend me his camera, Tommy Harland. If you feel any of the write-up offensive, or you have any suggestion/feeback/concerns, or else you can contact me: felix.halim@gmail.com

Next : Day 1, Take off to Bangalore, India (April 6, 2006)

Google India Code Jam 2006 - Table of Contents

1. Main Page - Google India Code Jam 2006
2. Qualification Round
   • Set 1,10,13,16,25,28 :: Problem 250: ExamQuestions; Problem 1000: UnNestable
   • Set 2,9,15,20,21,27 :: Problem 250: GeneralElection; Problem 1000: UnNestable
   • Set 3,8,11,19,23,26 :: Problem 250: Sort01; Problem 1000: UnNestable
   • Set 4,7,14,18,22,29 :: Problem 250: PatternFiller; Problem 1000: PerfectNumbers
   • Set 5,6,12,17,24,30 :: Problem 250: TowerLifts; Problem 1000: PerfectNumbers
3. Elimination Round
   • Problem 250: MatrixConstructor
   • Problem 500: PalindromesAnalyzer
   • Problem 1000: VectorSet
4. Championship Round
   • Day 1, Take off to Bangalore, India (April 6, 2006)
   • Day 2, Code Jam Contest (April 7, 2006)
     • Breakfast and Google Tech Talk 1
     • The Contest Begins!!
       • Problem 300: InverseLca
       • Problem 500: ColoredDominoes
       • Problem 1000: InterestingString
     • Le Meridien and Google Tech Talk 2
     • Awards Winner announcements
     • Google Tech Talk 2 (continued) and dinner
   • Day 3, Interview with Google (April 8, 2006)
5. Links/Blogs/News