Algorithm Competition Postmortem

Posted By: Charles | Aug 14th, 2007 @ 9:59 AM

The Algorithm competition is arguably the most mentally grueling contest at the Imagine Cup. Students have 24 hours to solve 9 problems that span multiple disciplines, including art.

After the fact, I wanted to meet with some of the competitors to discuss their experience. My assumption was that they would want to talk about the individual problems they solved (or didn't solve), but this wasn't the case to my surprise. In fact, to these geniuses the hardest algorithm to solve in this type of competition is the time algorithm: How to manage 24 hours effectively - when to rest, how much time to spend on parts of a problem, when to give in, when to move, when to go back and try again (maybe after a little nap or another can of soda), etc.

We also discuss what they plan on doing then they "grow up". Smiley

Tags: Algorithms, Careers, Imagine Cup 07

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littleguru

Some very smart guys. Interesting that managing the time was the hardest problem at all.

I can only imagine how hard it was to work after 24 hours. My longest "problem solving" was coding for 24 hours - I was death afterwards - but I'm so sure their problems were WAY harder! Smiley