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Programming practice website - VALLADOLID

Started by AndreTheGiant Apr 18, 2004 at 8:36 PM 13 replies 750+ views

Original Post

Apr 18, 2004 at 8:36 PM

Whats a good site for practicing programming? I keep hearing about topcoder, so I just checked it out but its not what Im looking for. Its all about tournaments with other people or something. What I want is a site where they have a bunch of problems, and you write the code to solve them, submit the code, and they automatically tell you if it works satsifactorially. Even if the site doesnt have an auto-code-checker, then I still want to know of a good practice site. Ideally, the site will have: -Tons of problems to choose from -Really well categorized questions. Eg (easy, medium, hard, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming, string manipulation...etc) -hints, solutions, either in the form of source code, pseudocode(preferrably), or a place where coders comment on specific problems. ========================= Edit: New question: see my post further down this page [edited by - AndreTheGiant on April 21, 2004 7:35:33 PM]

WiseElben

Apr 18, 2004 at 8:38 PM

Weird. I never thought such thing existed.

Elben

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he will eat for a life time."
-Chinese Proverb
WiseElben.com - Experience Wisdom

Subconscious

Apr 18, 2004 at 9:01 PM

Try www.topcoder.com You can practice from previous contests and if you''re too stuck, you can look at how other people solved it.

capn_midnight

Apr 18, 2004 at 9:17 PM

ACM Valladolid, with an email based verification system. Hundreds of problems, should occupy your time rather well.

as for hints, well, the problem statement should be enough, or atleast, that's what they always tell you during a contest. Just post here and we'll help out.

capn_midnight | Captain Midnight | deviantArt
ACM | SIGGRAPH | Generation5

[edited by - capn_midnight on April 18, 2004 10:18:19 PM]

temp_ie_cant_thinkof_name

Apr 18, 2004 at 9:22 PM

It''s better to practice if you''re competing doing it, IMO. It will be more realistic to interviews and under-pressure coding.

23yrold3yrold

Apr 18, 2004 at 9:22 PM

What about Guru of the Week if you''re a fan of C++?

Jesus saves ... the rest of you take damage.
"A page of history is worth a volume of logic." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Alpha_ProgDes

Apr 18, 2004 at 10:39 PM

Code Linkster
it seems very interesting!

edit: [url] brackets don't work

[edited by - Alpha_ProgDes on April 18, 2004 11:40:25 PM]

cozman

Apr 18, 2004 at 10:43 PM

Just a thought, perhaps some people on these boards would be intersted in starting up something like this. I would like to participate, and/or provide challenges, so if anyone else is interested maybe we could think of a way to organize this.

Benjamin Heath

Apr 19, 2004 at 1:48 AM

quote:
Original post by capn_midnight
ACM Valladolid, with an email based verification system. Hundreds of problems, should occupy your time rather well.

as for hints, well, the problem statement should be enough, or atleast, that''s what they always tell you during a contest. Just post here and we''ll help out.

Cool site! I wrote up a program for the first exercise already. Learning what I need to work on; that''s most important. Thanks!

==================
Benjamin Heath
==================

dx elliot

Apr 19, 2004 at 8:39 AM

What about all the API specific contests? I''d like to see more of those instead.. even if they have really crappy prizes I''ll still compete for fun and see what others came up with.

AndreTheGiant

Apr 21, 2004 at 5:51 PM

Hey,

I started doing the Valladolid problems. I got the first one ok (100), and finished the second (101), but I cant get it to accept my answer for it. It keeps giving me the error, "doesn''t compile". But it compiles and runs fine for me using MSVC++.NET.

Can anyone think of something that compiles with MSVC++.NET, that wouldnt compile with ... whatever Valladolid uses?

CrazyMike

Apr 21, 2004 at 8:37 PM

If you have gcc handy, try compiling with that. That is most likely what they''re compiling with. If you can''t do that, use a binary search. Split the program in half and submit the halves. By continually applying this process, you can figure out which part doesn''t compile. Just remember, you may have to test both halves in some instances, since both of them could have an error.

quote:
Original post by AndreTheGiant
Hey,

I started doing the Valladolid problems. I got the first one ok (100), and finished the second (101), but I cant get it to accept my answer for it. It keeps giving me the error, "doesn''t compile". But it compiles and runs fine for me using MSVC++.NET.

Can anyone think of something that compiles with MSVC++.NET, that wouldnt compile with ... whatever Valladolid uses?

AndreTheGiant

Apr 21, 2004 at 9:33 PM

Split the program in half? How could I possibly expect it to compile then?

Now I see why they call you CrazyMike!

CrazyMike

Apr 22, 2004 at 12:40 AM

Ok...not literally

For example, comment out half of the statements in a function. Obviously, you can''t do it exactly (leaving out closing braces for loops is bad

).

Since, this is a logarithmic process it works out fairly quickly, even if it a pain to comment stuff out and then put it back in. I''ve used this process before to track down hard to figure out run time problems, and to find compile time errors in templates (because when I get in a groove I don''t like to stop to write test code)

sjelkjd

Apr 22, 2004 at 2:08 AM

Topcoder also has practice rooms. It''s all done in an interactive applet, so you can test your code out for various inputs. You can also get results immediately.

Topcoder has matches once a week - there are only 2 big tournaments a year, but one just happened, so they''re having a lot of coverage for it.

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