So the game started on 21st, Jan, and that’s a little more than 3 weeks ago. Finally some more serious competitors joined last week. But check this out. The current first three leaders Schools line up so well and spell “TOP”. University of “TOP”. Lol….

(+ click below to enlarge)

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It is hard to believe so far so few people joined the second qualifier, which makes this No.1 weigh much less. Perhaps all the attendees tried out in the first qualifier and no one cares about this one anymore, since they are in if they rank within 250 in any of the two qualifiers. For me, I missed the last one and so saved my energy to this round. Am I a bit too over-reactive? I hope not.

About the competition

Most of the problems were straightforward and there are a few bugs in the specifications, which some I managed to guess out, the others I didn’t. However, I captured the screen right away, instead of at a later time, because I will lose the rank quite soon due to the contest rules. When two persons’ final scores are equal, their ranks are determined by the order in which they submit solutions to the hardest problem. See that 75 point boy? He was busy thus he nailed down the hardest one on his first shot, then he sat back and could finish other things up. As long as he finishes all problems before the deadline of this round, he is the 1st. Ziyan is his name.

Woohooo

Why to join?

“It’s … our responsibilities and even professionalism …”

My intention to join this Software Development competition was actually not about any prizes, but take this chance to push myself to learn some .NET stuff, which is being referred to increasingly more popularly and somehow will be an essential skill for any Software Developers to have. Well, learning a new language should be a simple task for Computer Science students, right? It’s not about the OpenSource or ClosedSource technology debates, but our responsibilities and even professionalism require us to know the quite-well-known framework, concepts, and its advantages/disadvantages.

What’s next?

Second round would be harsh. First 24 people out of 300-500 students get in. I don’t doubt my problem solving skills, but it under a time frame. I probably won’t get rid of the thoughts like “O if I can’t solve this in five minutes, I am going to lose” in the middle of the contest. That’s why I don’t like any competition thing, first is I don’t like to see other people lose; then I don’t like to see myself lose either. It’s quite stressful as the two opposite ideas mix together, and take over controls back and forth. The result is that I couldn’t concentrate and most of the time, end up losing it. My philosophy is: if there is a chance that I will lose, even if it’s just a minimal one, in many cases I will just not bother to do it at the first place. To me it is the same as not watching a horror movie because I will feel really sad during the nights.