This year, NSU was a platform for the ICPC International Collegiate Programming Contest Northern Eurasia Student Team World Championship. Teams had five hours to solve 10-15 algorithmic problems. The solution to each of them was a program in one of the programming languages. A distinctive feature of the Championship is that each team is given only one computer without access to the Internet.
Verification is completely automatic using pre-prepared tests in the system. Teams received penalty time for incorrect solutions and time spent solving the problem is also taken into account. The task is considered completed if the program produced correct results for all tests and complied with the restrictions on the amount of memory and time.
Vladimir Isachenko, coach of NSU programming sports teams, explained,
The World Championship in Sports Programming is the most prestigious competition among the Olympiads. It has been conducted for decades and NSU always tries to participate in the Championship and to win medals, as in any sports competition. Solving complex problems is fun. We have a standard approach to beginner preparation giving lectures on topics related to algorithms and data structures and solving problems. Experienced Olympiad participants solve problems from previous years at various competitions, then we analyze them together.
Five teams represented NSU in the Northern Eurasia Finals, which is a qualifier for the World Championship Finals. Two of these teams received diplomas. One team (composed of Anton Mokrousov, Sofya Lylova, and Artyom Plyusnin) received a 2nd degree diploma taking 19th place and another team (composed of Matvey Goncharov, Roman Fesenko, and Denis Malinovsky) received a 3rd degree diploma taking 44th place in the overall ranking. The first team qualified for the World Championship Finals which will be held in Astana in September.
Malinovsky noted,
We were very pleased with the level of organization. Even though this was the first time the Olympiad was held at NSU, everything was adhered to the highest standard! The Olympiad problems were very exciting focusing on interesting ideas and without serious imbalances in their complexity. It is also worth noting the positive atmosphere. These events greatly motivate you to grow and further develop your skills. In addition, they promote communication between programmers from different universities from all over the world.
