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Google Code Jam 2019 Discussion

I'd love to meet other people from the community who are competing in Google Code Jam this year.

  • How did your qualification round go?
  • Have you participated in previous years? How did that go?
  • What's your process for tackling a code jam round? Do you play some music or work in silence? Do you have coffee, redbull, water, ...? Anything you wanna share

Top comments (4)

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williamragstad profile image
William Rågstad

Sup Frederik!

I participated for the first time this year but failed to take part in the second round because I had other plans. So I’m looking forward to compete in the next years jam instead.

My qualification round went perfect, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to fetch the input data or write output at first, but after a couple of tries and actually reading the documentation, I got it working...
Submitted the solution to the second problem (the maze thingy) and got accepted in everything. But I still came up with a better sulotion afterwards...

When I attempt solving a coding puzzle, I usually start off by visualizing the problem in like ms paint or paint.net (that I use), or pen and paper (often the best). Then I kickstart the programming, creating data structures if needed etc. And yes, I listen to synth dubstep retro like music in the background to get myself in the zone😎

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_bigblind profile image
Frederik 👨‍💻➡️🌐 Creemers

Hi William,

Round 1 is divided into 3 sub-rounds. If you pass any of these, you continue on to round 2, so if you missed last Saturday's round, you can still compete in the next two sub-rounds if you'd like 😄.

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williamragstad profile image
William Rågstad

Really? I had no idea! That’s an relief, now I might stand a chance again😉
Thx!

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jaydm profile image
jaydm

Hey Frederik,

This is the second time I've managed to qualify (barely) out of probably seven attempts. I've never made it past round 1 though.

Maybe this year?...

I don't remember if I was listening to music though...I guess I was in a zone (but I was probably listening to music). As far as music goes though, it is important for me to listen to something that I know well enough that I could sing it while typing something else.

Just to make myself feel bad I went back to the two problems that I solved and did them over. My new solutions are a hundred times cleaner and even solved the hidden tests where my actual submissions failed them.