Code Jam Round 1

Code Jam’s Round 1 is over now and I didn’t make it to the next round as last year :-(. I am pretty sad and writing this entry with heavy heart but on the other hand quite satisfied by my performance as I was eliminated with very close competition. Let me describe you my sad story.

Round 1 consisted of 3 sub rounds of 2hr 30min duration each and top 1000 finishers from each round were to qualify to Round 2.

Round 1A was at 6:00 AM, Saturday, May 22, 2010. I was in my friend’s home on that day. I woke up early with great enthusiasm after a 4 hours nap and started the computer. The development environment is not set on that system. “Its ok, no problem, lets setup the development environment”. It penalized me about 15 minutes. Started solving the first problem, applied brute force and it was accepted but I took 1hr 15min to solve it. Now I was just looking for one more solution for small input for a finish under top 1000. Started the second problem, solved it, submitted it and “Aah! INCORRECT RESULT”.  I made another attempt and same result again. Round over and I ranked about 1360 with 23 points. After system tests, I managed to finish at 1269. I was pretty happy with my performance as I was very close for getting through. The person at 1000th place was also with the same score but with less time penalty i.e. 51min 40sec.

Round 1B was at 9:00 PM on the same day. O boy, power cutoff from 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM, but I will participate from 10:00 PM onwards. At 10:00 PM, I entered in to the contest. 1 hour is already spent in load shedding so I have to be fast and accurate. I started Problem A, solved it in almost 43 minutes and it got accepted. Problem B was also easy, just a bubble sort algorithm. I got it accepted in almost 35 minutes with one wrong try. I finished at 56 points with total time 2hr 26min 06sec (1hr 26min 06sec of contest + 1 hr of load shedding). Ranked 1410 and after System Tests 1352. The interesting part is that the person ranked 1000 spent 1hr 26min 15sec so I am qualified if I subtract 1 hour of load shedding. :-)

Round 1C was at 2:00 PM, Sunday, May 23, 2010. Load shedding from 2:00 - 4:00. No chance. So this is how I eliminated :-(.

Lessons Learned:
1. Most importantly, I need more practice as in Round 1A, I got complete time but was just making a stupid mistake in 2nd problem.
2. Make sure the development environment is setup and working before contest.
3. Take at least 8 hours sleep before any programming contest.
4. If above rules are being obeyed, no one can stop you from being qualified to Round 2 even a power cut off.

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