Google Code Jam

Google Code Jam is back!! After a couple years of running off the TopCoder platform they took time out to build their own platform. Wow, it looks exciting! More than $80,000 in cash prizes, top 500 to compete at their nearest Google office (which for us in SA equates to a wonderful trip to Europe :-D) and 100 finalists gathering in the famous Mountain View office to shoot it out for the grand prize of $10,000.

Google sure have put a lot of time and effort into Code Jam and the results were evident in the beta contest (yes I know, Google call everything beta!) they ran a couple months ago. They have made the problems all data problems which opens things up greatly such as allowing you to use any programming language whatsoever. All you do is submit your program's output, like you do with the IPSC if you competed in that one.

The qualification round is on 17 July. It goes on for a full 24 hours with the sole purpose being to discard those who are just faffing around and get sweet bugerall. Getting a single problem correct will be sufficient to progress to the main knock-out rounds, which you will have the choice of several days and times. There are a total of three online knock-out rounds (excluding qualifiers) before the two on-site events. So it's big, and serious stuff.

You can register at:

http://code.google.com/codejam/

And if you're from South Africa, tell me that you've registered and I will add you to our local standings. Watch this space for more competitions from Google, local South African ones in particular! I was recently awarded the position of Google Student Ambassador at UCT, so I have inside knowledge. ;-P

What Happened With Google Code Jam?

When I visited the Google Zurich offices in June, there was a bit of discussion about the Google Code Jam. We were told that since they had so many regional code jams last year, the organisers were exhausted to the point where they decided to take a break this year. Hence the talk was that there would be no code jams this year.


Today, however, I came across a blog post on the official Google blog. This post brings back hope that the Code Jam will return soon. Quite interesting was the following line:

now we're excited to join that community in our own right, by producing a Google Code Jam of our own!

In previous years they've made use of the TopCoder platform and the contest has therefore been very TopCoder-like. Hopefully this means that they will get more involved in running things themselves and therefore moving away from the TopCoder style, which I personally dislike due to the short duration. The second practice problem the post links has a Google theme, which further suggests they will be moving away from TopCoder.

I sure hope that it returns, although I would be far more impressed if they can put together a marathon contest lasting about 24-72 hours. With marathon contests you get to work in a team and rack your brains together for much longer and it can be great fun.