TopCoder.com : coding contest scene?

/me

In college I competed in collegiate programming contests, and participated on TopCoder a number of times.

The 3H-GDC is semi-regular, but you know that.

A couple years ago, I did TopCoder for a half-dozen or so contests. I was fairly good (made it into top 100 by the time I quit), but not good enough to win any big money, so I just quit. I think it's cool that they actually managed to get serious funding for a programming contest like that. Their annual championships give out hundreds of thousands in cash.

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Original post by BeanDog A couple years ago, I did TopCoder for a half-dozen or so contests. I was fairly good (made it into top 100 by the time I quit), but not good enough to win any big money, so I just quit. I think it's cool that they actually managed to get serious funding for a programming contest like that. Their annual championships give out hundreds of thousands in cash.

I found my first TC contest interesting but frustrating. To have 1.25 hours, competing against over 1000 people, is bizarre considering my experience was previously limited to 4E4 and 3H-GDC!
I found one guy ho has won over $100K from TC - I guess they get funded by companies who reckon it's cheaper than using a recruiter?

I know some coutries have a national gamedev contest - Sweden for instance. Does the UK or are there such contests I can enter my games in elsewhere? Not contests saying "design this game" but "enter your existing game"...

I'm on it.

I suck, though. My rating used to be so high. [sad]

I am on it.

Me! I think I've seen you post on the TC forums before [grin] Btw my handle is the same as here. Clicky

I just joined with the same handle here, but I think I am going to get hammered...at least for now.

I just joined recently but haven't done any contests yet. I do go to collegiate programming contests regularly though. Those contests are a heck of a lot of fun to go to, and i'd strongly recommend going to at least one if you have the opportunity.

I'm on it.

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Original post by sjelkjd I'm on it.

2370? Holy fuck...not to mention the $6k in earnings.

I'm on it. Only played one ranked match, I could probably get pretty high up if I didn't hate programming competitions.

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Original post by sjelkjd I'm on it.

Have you had recruiters or companies approach you with job offers? IMO that would be the greatest benefit from participating (well besides the money).

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Original post by dohtem Quote: Original post by sjelkjd I'm on it. Have you had recruiters or companies approach you with job offers? IMO that would be the greatest benefit from participating (well besides the money).

Yes, although I had already accepted an offer from my current employer(Microsoft) at the time. It was kind of funny actually...there were a couple places where I had submitted my resume, and they weren't interested in talking to me. Then I made it to the finals of a topcoder tournament, and suddenly they were ready to fly me out for an interview. Success at topcoder results in a lot of visibility with the companies that use them for recruiting.

This seems like a fun idea. Does anyone know if this could actually hurt you if you don't do so well once you do start looking for a real job?

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Original post by Sr_Guapo This seems like a fun idea. Does anyone know if this could actually hurt you if you don't do so well once you do start looking for a real job?

You can always choose to just to not mention TopCoder if you do poorly [grin] The companies won't recieve information unless you give TopCoder expressed permission to hand over any information regarding yourself.

I signed up for a long time ago, but didn't do much of anything with it. For the most part I couldn't get the Java Applet to work consistantly enough to do anything on there.

I have an account from '02 that I never really did anything with, and now no longer have the email that the password goes to, oh well.

I'd probably start one up again, but the language choices aren't that great. Java I tend to avoid, C# I don't use often enough to code without F1, which leaves C++ without my best friend Boost.

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Original post by nuvem C# I don't use often enough to code without F1

You can use VS to do the TopCoder problems. I just copy my code into their window at the end. That way you get a debugger too.

What are the problem like ?

Are they quick one-function algorithmic things or do they actually require a significant amount of code ?