Competitive programming

Two men sitting at desks with a computer and papers sprawled on them. — Petr Mitrichev (left) and Gennady Korotkevich (right), two prominent competitive programmers during the 2013 Yandex algorithm cup.

Competitive programming or sport programming is a mind sport involving participants trying to program according to provided specifications. The contests are usually held over the Internet or a local network. Competitive programming is recognized and supported by several multinational software and Internet companies, such as Google^[1]^[2], and Meta.^[3]

A programming competition generally involves the host presenting a set of logical or mathematical problems, also known as puzzles or challenges, to the contestants (who can vary in number from tens or even hundreds to several thousand). Contestants are required to write computer programs capable of solving these problems. Judging is based mostly upon number of problems solved and time spent on writing successful solutions, but may also include other factors (quality of output produced, execution time, memory usage, program size, etc.).

^ "Google Code Jam". google.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
^ "TCO12 Sponsor: Google - TCO 12". topcoder.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012.
^ "Facebook Hacker Cup". Facebook. Retrieved February 20, 2016.

[1] "Google Code Jam". google.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved February 20, 2016.

[2] "TCO12 Sponsor: Google - TCO 12". topcoder.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012.

[3] "Facebook Hacker Cup". Facebook. Retrieved February 20, 2016.

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