Preparing for the SER2011 Programming Contest

New this year, we provide support for students wishing to participate in the ACM Intercollegiate Programming Contest, but who might not have a local chapter of the ACM, nor a practice squad for support. It is not necessary to be a member of the ACM, to be a computer science major, to have a faculty advisor, or to have a team to participate. Only an interest in problem solving using computers is required.

The benefits of working at these steps are many:

Improved programming skills -- these problems are at all levels of difficulty
Improved problem solving skills -- many problems have ingenious solutions
Better grades -- these problems are really the same as those that appear in many college courses
Better jobs -- these problems are like those used in job interviews
Less work -- every future computer project will be easier after working these problems
Community -- join thousands around the world in solving problems
Fame and glory -- the best are recognized at world-renown events

The road to the top is not easy or quick, but no matter how far you go it is rewarding.

Step 0

Start by looking at some example problems and their solutions in a sample problem set.

Step 1

Join the on-line judging site TJU:

TJU registration

As a practical matter this limits you to programming in Java or C++. Other on-line judging sites like SPOJ allow every major language, but it is more complicated so we do not use it.

There are other ways to develop problem solving skills for instance, USACO, but we focus on using TJU here.

Try TJU out by solving some of the following problems: 1001 Hello, World!, 1132 Knight Moves, 1144 Tree Recovery, 1233 Number Steps, 1257 f91, 1412 Above Average, 1516 Climbing Worm, 1574 Financial Management, 1590 IBM Minus One, 1695 Count on Canton, 1805 Electrical Outlets, 1818 A Simple Question of Chemistry, 1920 Hangover, 1930 Doubles, 1939 Speed Limit.

The programs should all read from the standard input stream and write to the standard output stream. A correct program always computes the right answer no matter what test cases are given to the program.

On Tue, 30 Aug 2011 at 8pm we hold our own virtual TJU contest on the Internet: Training Contest #1. The contest has four easy problems and is intended to last two hours (but continues for a total four hours in case some people can't join until later).

Step 2

Continue practicing some more problems at TJU: 1002 Maya Calendar, 1015 Gridland, 1036 Rails, 1065 Factorial, 1090 City hall, 1100 Pi, 1112 Integer Inquiry, 1127 DNA Sorting, 1153 Word Reversal, 1154 A Mathematical Curiosity, 1169 Error Correction, 1171 Goldbach's Conjecture, 1208 Fibonacci Numbers, 1326 Soundex, 1350 Primary Arithmetic, 1355 Jolly Jumpers, 1401 All in All, 1457 Beat the Spread!, 1476 A Simple Task, 1477 Binary Numbers, 1528 Least Common Multiple, 1551 Digital Roots, 1575 I Think I Need a Houseboat.

On Wed, 7 Sep 2011 at 8pm we hold our own virtual TJU contest on the Internet: Training Contest #2. The contest has four easy problems and is intended to last two hours (but continues for a total four hours in case some people can't join until later).

Step 3

Now once you have some idea about how to write programs to solve these kinds of problems, it is time to try some problems that are slightly harder: 1117 Game Prediction, 1120 Mileage Bank, 1131 The Circumference of the Circle, 1176 Recaman's Sequence, 1279 Rotten Ropes, 1391 Hay Points, 1527 Euchre Results, 1547 To and Fro, 1626 Function Run Fun, 1637 Specialized Four-Digit Numbers, 1680 Crazy tea party, 1715 Yeehaa!, 1736 Knight Moves, 1779 Tri Tiling, 1823 Cantoring Along, 1833 The Hardest Problem Ever, 1856 Anagrammatic Distance, 1911 Easier Done than Said?, 1924 Jungle Roads, 1935 Symmetric Order.

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 at 8pm we hold our own virtual TJU contest on the Internet: Training Contest #3. The contest has four easy problems and is intended to last two hours (but continues for a total four hours in case some people can't join until later).

Preparation for Regionals

Since not everyone has the benefit of a pre-regional, qualifying contest, we hold the first Internet Pre-Regional Programming Contest on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 at 1pm. The contest is similar to the regional programming contest in that it is a five hour contest with about 10 problems of varying degree of difficulty. The contest will use the same software to manage the contest as will be used at the regional contest. Unlike the regional programming contest, there are no restrictions against using the Internet or other sources to solve the problems.

Registration for the Internet, Pre-Regional Programming Contest is required.

Register for Regionals

The next step is to register for the ACM ICPC regional competition. At the regional competition teams of three compete using one computer and without avail to assistance outside the team. Details can be found at the SER2011 Web site.

Note the contest date, pick the nearest contest site, form a team, have a team manager create a team registration at the ICPC Web site, and pay the registration fee. The deadline is Sat, 1 Oct 2011. If you have any trouble with this, contact us via e-mail at ser2011@cs.fit.edu

Practice for Regionals

Those who registered for the Internet, Pre-Regional Programming Contest may participate in a practice contest on Sat, 8 Oct 2011 at 1pm.