Tonight ACM members competed in our second Top Coder competition.  With the busy part of the semester beginning we again had two members, Luke Duncan and Dennis Matveyev. Two members wished us well at before the competition but were unable to compete, Tony Wesley and Kasey Thompson.  Thanks for the support guys. 

Below, Denis discusses his first experience at a Top Coder competition. 

“So .. wow ! 

I have a multitude of feelings about this contest (TopCoder), and I’ve only started competing 2 hours ago !

First, some background — I’ve been involved with ACM regional contests since 2004! Now, I see that all the time I’ve spend practicing for ACM is trumped by doing TopCoder contests! For ACM I used to solve problems from previous ACM’s contests, but TopCoder times you and lets you really butt heads with your peers and lets you do so better than ACM contest — at TopCoder you can see other contestants’ code!! (after the contest is over, of course!) 

I feel that had I practiced with TopCoder, besides getting better on TopCoder, I’d do better on ACM and other contests in general! 

Seeing other contestant’s code is AWESOME !! This was always a mystery for me at ACM contests. I managed to peek at Waterloo’s code at an ACM contest and it was the top of the tops for me. TopCoder makes looking at other contestant’s code routine.

So, my impressions of the contest at TC (TopCoder) as coming from ACM regionals background:
* First, I was afraid, very afraid to compete. Ok, I was not afraid, I was hesitant. Luke, thanks for pulling me out and having me compete. Here’s a task for you: kidnap people and have them compete at TopCoder as their way to get back home. I was hesitant because I did not want to break my ACM regional mode, but I am happy it’s broken now!
* Being used to ACM contests, I did not know how to submit problems for TC contest. Turns out you need to write a class and use exact methods provided to you. Also, there should be no main() function when you submit. This is just a contest set up slightly differently than ACM. ”

Our first official ACM TopCoder competition was a relative success.  Today’s competition drew two ACM members: myself and Tony Wesley.  Unfortunately, Tony wasn’t able to register for the competition in time and didn’t officially compete but still worked the problems. We’ll continue to meet for future Single Round Matches and hope to grow the group.  We’re looking to create an informal environment for members to compete, show-off, hone, refine, or even discover their programming skills.  If that sounds like something you’re interested in email Luke at ljduncan@umd.umich.edu.  The next competition will be on Saturday, February 7th, at noon.  A full schedule of competitions can be found here.

Tony worked and compiled the 250 point problem.  Since he didn’t officially compete he wasn’t ranked.

Luke submitted the 250 point problem, compiled the second problem, and successfully challenged 1 problem.  Unfortunately Luke’s first problem didn’t pass the system testing.  Luke finished 15th out of 20 in his division 1 competition room.

The big lesson learned today was to read the problem statement carefully.  The 250-point problem was easy, if you read it correctly.  The problem is as follows:

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom where math was always a big problem. When the post of the royal treasurer needed to be filled, applicants were presented with the following problem:  “We have two arrays of integers, A and B. A and B each contain exactly N elements. Let’s define a function S over A and B:

S = A0*B0 + … + AN-1*BN-1

Rearrange the numbers in A in such a way that the value of S is as small as possible. You are not allowed to rearrange the numbers in B.”  The problem writers need a program to check the correctness of the applicants’ answers. Given vector <int>s A and B, return the smallest possible value for S.

Note the statement: “You are not allowed to rearrange the numbers in B.”  This DOES NOT mean that the algorithm cannot rearrange the numbers in B.  It simply means that the citizens whom the law applies to cannot.  Understanding that is the difference between spending 20 minutes and spending 2 minutes on the problem.

Once the official Problem Set & Analysis is uploaded to TopCoder a link will be added to the post.

It is hard to believe that the first week of classes is nearly at an end, and with this new semester comes a new set of ACM officers and a new meeting schedule. Well, we at the ACM want to welcome you all back in style, so at the next meeting on Wednesday, January 21st at 3:30pm in the 1st floor conference room in the CIS building we are supplying the snacks, you just have to supply the warm bodies (yours, preferably, but feel free to bring a friend!)

The agenda for this meeting includes:

• Bringing MPCon back to Dearborn
• An ACM Ted conference
• TopCoder competitions
• Starting up an ACM Test Bank
• The need for on-air personalities for a WUMD radio show
• The upcoming programming competition

Whatever YOU want to see the ACM do for you

So we hope to see you there! Email me if you have any questions.

Upcoming Events:

• January 21, tomorrow, join ACM President Anthony Wesley and Treasurer Luke Duncan in a Top Coder competition. (click here for more information)
• February 11th is the date of the ACM’s second Programming Competition (click here for more information). Snacks and instructions start at 5pm in lab CIS 139, with the contest to follow at 6pm.
• Remember, if you plan on submitting a program for the High School Programming Competition, all submissions are due in to Dr. Elenbogen by February 28th.