Google Code Jam 2013 is here – are you geared up to compete?

It’s that time of the year again that gets the programming community excited to bits. It marks the getting together of the coding community for the tenth year. Tens of thousands of programmers compete to win the ultimate title of the Google Code Jam Champion.

The contest involves solving tough algorithmic puzzles to win the coveted title, not to mention thousands of dollars in prize money.

The first tournament was held in 2003, and since then, it has brought together professional and student programmers from around the world. Starting in 2009, Google Code Jam finals are held in different countries, and this year’s finals are going to be held in Google’s London office.

The contest underwent a significant format change between 2006 and 2008, and there was no contest held in 2007. There have been many changes, and the previous year’s contestants are now helping run the event.

Code Jam Facts – (courtesy: code.google.com)

• There were seven problems in global Code Jam rounds that were not solved by anyone during the round in which they were posed. They are:
  1. 2008 – Chessboard puzzler King.
  2. 2010 (World Finals) – Ninjutsu, a geometry problem about grappling-hook-wielding assassins.
  3. The Paths of Yin Yang – A grid-based combinatorial problem with shades of Taoist philosophy.
  4. 2011 (World Finals) – The non-traditional Program within a Program, which asked contestants to program a Turing Machine.
  5. The difficult-to-wrap-your-head-around Ace in the Hole.
  6. 2012 (Round 2) – Descending in the Dark for which 79 attempts were made with no solution.
  7.  2012 (World Finals) – the lost-in-the-woods simulator Shifting Paths.
• A perfect score has never been achieved by any contestant in an onsite final.
• The fastest correct submission (2 minutes, 41 seconds) came from Russia’s SergeiFedorov on 2010’s Rope Intranet. For the fastest Large, Australia’s xiaowuc1 submitted his final solution to the same problem just 3 minutes 14 seconds into the contest (22 seconds after his own Small) beating SergeiFedorov’s Large by 9 seconds.

This year there have been a couple of changes that Google has announced, starting with the prize money for which the stakes have raised from last year’s $10,000 to $15,000. There’s also been a change in rules so that this year’s Code Jam Champion will automatically qualify for the finals in 2014, allowing them to defend their title.

The registrations for the contest open on March 12, 2013. Be sure to check their contest page http://code.google.com/codejam for more info and resources. So without further ado, get cracking at those codes and get as much practice as possible!

Best of Luck to all those aspiring contestants!