Table of Contents] ��

��

�� [table of contents] ��

�� Founder’s Message 02 �� Coding Tournament �� Brackets 03 �� Semifinal Room 1 05 �� Semifinal Room 2 11 �� Semifinal Room 3 17 �� Semifinal Room 4 23 �� Component Competition �� Brackets 33 �� Design Final Room 34 �� Development Final Room 36 �� Review Boards 38 �� TopCoder Statistics 40 �� [schedule of events]

Championship MatchChampionship Match Thursday, SemifinalDecember SemifinalRoom 4 1 SemifinalRoom 2 RoomSemifinal 3 RoomFriday, 4 DecemberComponent 5CompetitionCoding Tournament Winners AnnouncedMedia Hour Awards Dinner

10:00 am 1:00 pm 4:00 pm 7:00 pm 3:00 pm 4:45 pm 5:00 pm 6:30 pm

�� 8:00 am - 12:00 pm �� [founder’s message] [coding tournament]

Welcome to the 2003 TopCoder Open, sponsored by Intel. Since last year’s Invitational tournament, TopCoder has grown by more than 15,000 members. Membership continues to steadily increase and currently stands at over 34,000 members. Of course, with these additional members we have seen many new faces throughout the member base, including some new faces in the high rankings. This will make for some thrilling competition.

We started the Coding Tournament of the TCO with 545 students and 464 professionals. There are 10 professionals and 6 students in the final 16. Some of our thinking in the beginning was that students would have more time to spend on TopCoder Semifinal Room 1 Semifinal Room 3 and would therefore have an advantage over professionals. Interestingly, this has turned out not to be the case. While it is difficult to make any definitive findings, without looking SnapDragon reid at other factors (such as time spent training and the discipline within which professionals work), it seems that professionals have no problem holding their own - even if they have less time to spend competing in TopCoder competitions. bstanescu Yarin

This will be the first year that actual software development is included in any of our major venco DjinnKahn tournaments through the Component Tournament. For those who are unaware, TopCoder members compete to develop commercial software for our customers in the form of mathijs components and applications. Our component competitions measure design and dpecora development ability. We are very excited to be adding another dimension to TopCoder’s developer offerings and look forward to expanding the component competition presence. Semifinal Room 2 Semifinal Room 4 I would like to thank our sponsors. As our title sponsor, Intel has been an absolute joy to [ ] work with. Working with Intel, one gets the feeling that their success is born out of how tomek ZorbaTHut they interact with their suppliers, employees, partners and customers as much as it is their technological leadership. Intel joins our returning tournament sponsor, NVIDIA, who bladerunner NGBronson has partnered with us to sponsor their second major event. NVIDIA has shown they truly believe that talent drives any organization. Their ‘edge’ clearly shines through. ambrose snewman I would also like to thank all of the members and employees of TopCoder who are making TopCoder the professional sport of programming. From building systems to madking tjq administering contests to collaborating with sponsors, TopCoder simply would not exist without your dedication.

As always, best of luck to you in the Arena!

Jack Hughes Founder, TopCoder, Inc.

[02] [03] You know you’re SnapDragon a TopCoder when… bstanescu … you take a laptop on vacation to participate in SRMs. venco - Pops dpecora

[coding tournament] SEMIFINAL ROOM 1 [05] Derek Kisman Bogdan Stanescu > Canada > United States, VA Seed: 1 Seed: 12

SnapDragon bstanescu Current Rating: 3285 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC Describe the most challenging system you Current Rating: 2560 Current Ranking: 2 technology? have played a role in developing. Current Ranking: 21 BS An Artificial Intelligence prootype that al- Rating Percentile: 99.97 DK Flexible, paper-like computer viewing screens. Who knows if they’re one year or lows the user to create a knowledge base Rating Percentile: 99.69 Number of Ratings: 79 10 years away, but I think they’ll be very without having any training in computer Number of Ratings: 49 Highest Rating: 3464 popular when they arrive. science. Highest Rating: 2861 TC Earnings: $24,411.00 TC Which technology company do you most TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC Earnings: $1,825.00 admire? For what reasons? technology? Overall Competition Statistics DK IBM. They’ve always had a fantastic BS Mobile systems (it’s already happening). Overall Competition Statistics research department and quality products, Success Rate 1-100%: and very few other companies can claim to TC What types of companies are you most in- Success Rate 1-100%: have guided the development of modern terested in working for (e.g., size, industry)? Challenges Made: 71 83.10% Challenges Made: 40 80.00% computing to the extent they have. Why? Challenges Defended: 15 60.00% BS The only preference I have is to work in Challenges Defended: 13 76.92% TC How old were you when you wrote your some Artifical Intelligence - related field, Problems: 237 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: first piece of code? What programming because it’s interesting and I’m knowledge- Problems: 150 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: language was it in? What did you write? able in it. Submissions: 230 97.05% DK I believe I was 6 or 7, starting with BASIC Submissions: 128 85.33% on the TI 99/4A. The first program I TC What is your preferred operating system Correct Submissions: 205 89.13% Correct Submissions: 113 88.28% remember writing was a math quiz game, and favorite IDE and programming lan- Overall Accuracy: 86.50% around that time. guage? Overall Accuracy: 75.33% BS Windows XP, Microsoft Visual Studio, C++ Average Points: 1105.34 TC How did you create your handle? Average Points: 825.86 DK It’s just an amusing Fantasy-themed pun I TC How old were you when you wrote your came up with. I’m a snapping dragon. Not, I first piece of code? What programming 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics repeat, NOT a beautiful, fragile flower. ;) language was it in? What did you write? 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics BS I was 14. I wrote a BASIC program that Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: TC What is your favorite movie? sorted 4 numbers, without knowing about Challenges Made: 2 100.00% DK Contact, starring Jodie Foster. I liked it the existence of arrays, so I actually used Challenges Made: 1 100.00% even more than the book. just 4 variables and a whole lot of IFs and Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 1 100.00% GOTOs. 0 TC What is your favorite hobby? Problems: Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: DK Playing videogames. I play a lot, often going TC What is your favorite movie? 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Submissions: 12 100.00% for world records online. BS Lost in Space Submissions: 9 75.00%

Correct Submissions: 11 91.67% Correct Submissions: 8 88.89%

Overall Accuracy: 91.67% Overall Accuracy: 66.67%

Average Points: 1055.27 [06] [07] Average Points: 673.21 Eugene Vasilchenko David Pecora > United States, MD > United States, NC Seed: 13 Seed: 116

venco dpecora Current Rating: 2699 TC Describe the most challenging system you TC Describe the most challenging system you Current Rating: 2175 Current Ranking: 13 have played a role in developing. have played a role in developing. EV Switching from C to C++ at National Cern- DP The most ambitious system I’ve worked on Current Ranking: 78 Rating Percentile: 99.81 ter for Biotechnology Information. to date is Forexster, a platform for trading Rating Percentile: 98.85 Number of Ratings: 58 foreign exchange online. For more details Number of Ratings: 64 see http://www.forexster.com. Highest Rating: 2802 TC Which technology company do you most Highest Rating: 2310 TC Earnings: $1,513.00 admire? For what reasons? EV Intel - It played the main role in growth of IT TC Which technology company do you most TC Earnings: $11,897.50 to the current state. admire? For what reasons? Overall Competition Statistics DP I’ve admired HP because of their longtime Overall Competition Statistics TC What do you think will be the next “hot” emphasis on things that many corporations Success Rate 1-100%: technology? consider unimportant, such as philan- Success Rate 1-100%: EV Current “hot” technologies - communica- thropy, real integrity, and respect for their Challenges Made: 50 66.00% Challenges Made: 48 70.83% tions and biotech didn’t finish their employees. I don’t know how much this Challenges Defended: 24 79.17% development. has changed as a result of their merger, Challenges Defended: 26 73.08% however. TC Problems: 174 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: What is your preferred operating system Problems: 195 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: and favorite IDE and programming TC What do you think will be the next “hot” Submissions: 150 86.21% language? technology? Submissions: 163 83.59% EV MS Windows, XEmacs, C++ DP Nanotechnology. Correct Submissions: 123 82.00% Correct Submissions: 137 84.05%

Overall Accuracy: 70.69% TC How old were you when you wrote your TC What is your preferred operating system Overall Accuracy: 70.26% first piece of code? What programming and favorite IDE and programming Average Points: 767.63 language was it in? What did you write? language? Average Points: 759.83 EV 14 years. Programming calculator codes. DP Measured in terms of the user interface Mastermind. and infrequency of crashes, the MacOS 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics is the nicest. Of course, what I own is a 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics TC How did you create your handle? Windows PC. : ) I like writing code in Java Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: EV ‘ven’ are my initials, ‘co’ stands for ‘company’. using IntelliJ IDEA. Challenges Made: 4 75.00% Challenges Made: 1 100.00% TC What is your favorite movie? TC What is your favorite movie? Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 3 100.00% EV Shrek DP Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 1 0% Problems: Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: TC What is your favorite hobby? TC What is your favorite hobby? 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: DP I’ve played chess for many years; in high Submissions: 9 75.00% EV Brain games. Submissions: 7 58.33% school I used to carry a board and set Correct Submissions: 8 88.89% around with me everywhere I went, and Correct Submissions: 6 85.71% pester people for games. Overall Accuracy: 66.67% Overall Accuracy: 50.00%

Average Points: 751.16 [08] [09] Average Points: 391.91 You know you’re a TopCoder when… …your college app contains your rating. tomek - Ishan bladerunner

ambrose

madking

[coding tournament] SEMIFINAL ROOM 2 [11] Tomasz Czajka Oleksandr Grushetskyy > Poland > Ukraine Seed: 2 Seed: 8

tomek bladerunner Current Rating: 3450 TC Describe the most challenging system you TC What types of companies are you most Current Rating: 2928 Current Ranking: 1 have played a role in developing. interested in working for (e.g., size, Current Ranking: 7 Rating Percentile: 99.98 TC CLR Execution Engine performance issues industry)? Why? at Microsoft. OG Size and industry do not matter to me, but Rating Percentile: 99.90 Number of Ratings: 19 I like companies with good reputations. Number of Ratings: 27 Highest Rating: 3450 TC If you could use your IT ablities to work for However, I like only creative jobs, so I do not Highest Rating: 2928 TC Earnings: $175.00 any company in the world, which would it be like programming business applications. and why? TC Earnings: $175.00 TC I have tried internships at IBM Research TC Describe the most challenging system you Overall Competition Statistics and Microsoft. I like ComArch research in have played a role in developing. Overall Competition Statistics Poland – a very good group of very good OG Mostly I’ve been occupied with image Success Rate 1-100%: people from my university. processing algorithms, so it was some Success Rate 1-100%: complex algorithms and their implementa- Challenges Made: 26 61.54% Challenges Made: 13 84.62% TC Which technology company do you most tions that were used in the application for Challenges Defended: 6 83.33% admire? For what reasons? Motorola that processes circuits, geographi- Challenges Defended: 6 83.33% TC Microsoft for success and work cal maps and so on. Problems: 57 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: environment. Problems: 81 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: TC To what degree has TopCoder improved Submissions: 55 96.49% TC What do you think will be the next “hot” your programming skills, if at all? Submissions: 71 87.65% technology? OG I’ve learned more how to work under great Correct Submissions: 53 96.36% Correct Submissions: 65 91.55% TC .NET pressure, become faster and have learned Overall Accuracy: 92.98% many useful tricks from others’ code. Overall Accuracy: 80.25% TC What is your preferred operating system Average Points: 1217.10 and favorite IDE and programming TC How old were you when you wrote your Average Points: 908.62 language? first piece of code? What programming TC Operating system: Linux; IDE: GVIM; language was it in? What did you write? 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics programming language: Haskell. OG I was 10 -11 years old and it was BASIC. 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics I was doing many experiments with it and Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: TC How old were you when you wrote your some months later wrote my own small Challenges Made: 4 100.00% first piece of code? What programming image editor. Challenges Made: 1 100.00% language was it in? What did you write? Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 1 0% 2 100.00% TC First piece of code: 11, BASIC, hello world? TC What is your favorite movie? First big piece of code: 12, Z86 assembly, OG Of course, “Blade Runner” :) Problems: Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: nibbles game (two worms eating stuff) 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Submissions: 11 91.67% Submissions: 10 83.33% TC What is your favorite movie? Correct Submissions: 11 100.00% TC 2001: A Space Odyssey Correct Submissions: 9 90.00% Overall Accuracy: Overall Accuracy: 91.67% TC What is your favorite hobby? 75.00% TC Volleyball and Travel Average Points: 1167.40 [12] [13] Average Points: 774.13 Ambrose Feinstein Michael Haddox-Schatz > United States, FL > United States, VA Seed: 15 Seed: 78

ambrose madking Current Rating: 2598 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC Which technology company do you most Current Rating: 2255 Current Ranking: 18 technology? admire? For what reasons? AF I am still waiting on all my answers from a Current Ranking: 54 Rating Percentile: 99.73 MH I don’t really know much about most com- year ago. Nearer term, it will be interesting panies, but I think Google is cool because Rating Percentile: 99.20 Number of Ratings: 109 to see how RFID pans out. of their apparently enjoyment of problem Number of Ratings: 27 Highest Rating: 2823 solving (Google Code Jam, their support of Highest Rating: 2255 TC Earnings: $19,140.50 TC What is your preferred operating system a problem solving team, etc.). and favorite IDE and programming TC Earnings: $1,176.50 language? TC What is your preferred operating system Overall Competition Statistics AF Windows 2000 for desktops, Linux for and favorite IDE and programming Overall Competition Statistics servers. I generally use VI to edit code, CVS language? Success Rate 1-100%: for version control, and make for build man- MH OS: Linux for development, Windows for Success Rate 1-100%: agement. (CVS will start VI to edit checkin desktop use. IDE: none (well, emacs). Challenges Made: 96 81.25% Challenges Made: 22 54.55% comments; that’s about as “integrated” as Language: Java. Challenges Defended: 50 68.00% my “development environment” gets.) My Challenges Defended: 9 77.78% language of choice depends on the task; TC How old were you when you wrote your lately it varies between sh, JavaScript, Problems: 333 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: first piece of code? What programming Problems: 84 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: and C++. language was it in? What did you write? Submissions: 268 80.48% MH 9 or 10. BASIC. Various small programs. Submissions: 67 79.76% TC How old were you when you wrote your First was probably an example from the Correct Submissions: 225 83.96% Correct Submissions: 43 64.18% first piece of code? What programming manual. Early programs included a guessing Overall Accuracy: 67.57% language was it in? What did you write? game program (guess a number between Overall Accuracy: 51.19% AF Six, Apple BASIC. It drew a mesh of colored 1 and 100) and a geometry program which Average Points: 741.46 bars on the screen in low-res “graphics” calculated areas and volumes. Average Points: 466.60 mode. TC How did you create your handle? 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics TC How did you create your handle? MH A nickname given to me by the wife of a 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics AF I pulled some Scrabble tiles out of a bag, friend. Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: but I couldn’t figure out how to pronounce Challenges Made: 3 33.33% “MDPOFEU”. So I just fell back on my first TC What is your favorite movie? Challenges Made: 2 100.00% name. MH Star Wars Challenges Defended: 4 75.00% Challenges Defended: 4 75.00% TC What is your favorite movie? TC What is your favorite hobby? Problems: Problems: 15 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: AF Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam MH Softball 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Submissions: 12 80.00% Submissions: 9 75.00% TC What is your favorite hobby? Correct Submissions: 10 83.33% AF Reading Correct Submissions: 6 66.67%

Overall Accuracy: 66.67% Overall Accuracy: 50.00%

Average Points: 675.50 [14] [15] Average Points: 417.93 reid

Yarin

You know you’re DjinnKahn a TopCoder when… mathijs … your friends ask you to order pizza and you answer ‘aipzz’. - StefanPochmann

[coding tournament] SEMIFINAL ROOM 3 [17] Reid Barton Jimmy Mårdell > United States, MA > Sweden Seed: 3 Seed: 6

reid Yarin Current Rating: 3169 TC Describe the most challenging system you TC Describe the most challenging system you Current Rating: 3058 Current Ranking: 3 have played a role in developing. have played a role in developing. RB I helped develop a system for automatically JM The only “system” of any degree would be a Current Ranking: 5 Rating Percentile: 99.95 measuring available bandwidth in networks: game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance Rating Percentile: 99.93 Number of Ratings: 37 the project involved everything from low- where I was the lead programmer (basically Number of Ratings: 73 level socket programming to solving linear Highest Rating: 3205 the only programmer). It was a decathlon Highest Rating: 3227 programming problems. game, i.e., athletics with 10 different events. TC Earnings: $9,619.00 TC Earnings: $15,723.00 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC What is your preferred operating system Overall Competition Statistics technology? and favorite IDE and programming Overall Competition Statistics RB Blue LEDs language? Success Rate 1-100%: JM Windows XP. For small things, I prefer using Success Rate 1-100%: TC What is your preferred operating system a texteditor (UltraEdit) and C++. For more Challenges Made: 27 77.78% Challenges Made: 69 79.71% and favorite IDE and programming serious applications, I’ve started to like C# Challenges Defended: 15 73.33% language? in Visual Studio. Challenges Defended: 28 64.29% RB Operating system: Debian Linux. IDE: emacs + make. Programming language: TC To what degree has TopCoder improved Problems: 111 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Problems: 219 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: OCaml. your programming skills, if at all? Submissions: 107 96.40% JM It has made me faster and maybe more Submissions: 206 94.06% TC How old were you when you wrote your importantly, allowed my to exchange ideas Correct Submissions: 86 80.37% Correct Submissions: 178 86.41% first piece of code? What programming with other great coders. Overall Accuracy: 77.48% language was it in? What did you write? Overall Accuracy: 81.28% RB I wrote some simple programs in 6502 TC How old were you when you wrote your Average Points: 993.15 assembly when I was 4. I think one of them first piece of code? What programming Average Points: 1019.36 beeped three times--I remember not under- language was it in? What did you write? standing why it wasn’t working, and eventu- JM 7 years old. It was made in BASIC on a 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics ally discovering in the reference guide that I 8-bit computer (not one of the most com- 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics had to reset some register between calls to mon ones). It was a simple number game Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: the beep routine. played between two players. You could Challenges Made: 2 50.00% actually play the computer, and it would play Challenges Made: 4 100.00% TC What is your favorite movie? optimally (although that was really, really Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 1 100.00% RB I’m not a big movie fan, but I’ve enjoyed the easy, as it was a children game...)! (This is 0 LOT R movies. the first program that I know I wrote and did Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: something that made sense, as opposed to Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: TC What is your favorite hobby? Submissions: 11 91.67% a “hello world” program.) Submissions: 10 83.33% RB Playing music--piano and formerly cello. Correct Submissions: 9 81.82% TC What is your favorite movie? Correct Submissions: 10 100.00% JM Lord of the Rings, when all 3 films are out Overall Accuracy: 75.00% on DVD extended edition. Overall Accuracy: 83.33% Average Points: 914.76 [18] [19] Average Points: 1023.97 Tom Sirgedas Mathijs Vogelzang > United States, MI > United States, WA Seed: 17 Seed: 68

DjinnKahn mathijs Current Rating: 2583 TC Describe the most challenging system you TC What is most important to you in a job (e.g., Current Rating: 2461 reward, recognition, benefits, salary)? Current Ranking: 19 have played a role in developing. Current Ranking: 29 TS My Literati (Yahoo Scrabble) bot which MV That the problems I solve in my job are Rating Percentile: 99.72 takes screenshots as input and simulates challenging. Rating Percentile: 99.57 Number of Ratings: 118 mouse, keyboard movements as output. It Number of Ratings: 7 Highest Rating: 2631 will greet and play an opponent automati- TC If you could use your IT abilities to work for Highest Rating: 2461 TC Earnings: $17,238.00 cally. (It will warn the opponent and will only any company in the world, which would it be play unrated games, to be fair.) and why? TC Earnings: $175.00 MV Mmmm... I don’t really know. Just some Overall Competition Statistics TC What types of companies are you most in- major biotech firm I guess. Overall Competition Statistics terested in working for (e.g., size, industry)? Success Rate 1-100%: Why? TC Describe the most challenging system you Success Rate 1-100%: TS I’m most interested in working for a medium have played a role in developing. Challenges Made: 33 78.79% Challenges Made: 7 57.14% size company. Big enough so that I have MV A decision support system for regulating Challenges Defended: 60 53.33% a lot of people to learn from, but small glucose levels in ICU patients. The system Challenges Defended: 2 100.00% enough that my work makes a difference. puts the doctor out of the decision loop by Problems: 363 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Hopefully I can get a job working with analyzing glucose values from the labora- Problems: 21 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: games, graphics and algorithms since that’s tory, generating new insulin pump rates and Submissions: 318 87.60% what I enjoy most. communicating them directly to the nurse. Submissions: 18 85.71% Correct Submissions: 243 76.42% Correct Submissions: 15 83.33% TC What is your preferred operating system TC What is your preferred operating system Overall Accuracy: 66.94% and favorite IDE and programming and favorite IDE and programming Overall Accuracy: 71.43% language? language? Average Points: 703.01 TS Windows, MSVC, C++ MV Linux, Eclipse (emacs is a close 2nd), Java Average Points: 736.99 (C++, is a close 2nd) TC How old were you when you wrote your 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics first piece of code? What programming TC How old were you when you wrote your 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics language was it in? What did you write? first piece of code? What programming Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: TS I was about 11 and it was just a “Hello language was it in? What did you write? Challenges Made: 1 0% World” in GWBASIC. MV About 8, I think. It was a game in BASIC, Challenges Made: 6 50.00% on a BBC computer with Acorn OS and 64 Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 2 100.00% 1 100.00% TC How did you create your handle? KB of memory. No harddisc and only a 5.25 TS Djinn comes from a card game I used to inch floppy drive. Problems: Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: play (Magic: The Gathering). Kahn used to 15 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Submissions: 9 75.00% be a server for Warcraft II. TC What is your favorite movie? Submissions: 12 80.00% MV Lord of the Rings Correct Submissions: 8 88.89% TC What is your favorite movie? Correct Submissions: 11 91.67% TS Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Overall Accuracy: 66.67% Overall Accuracy: 73.33%

Average Points: 592.30 [20] [21] Average Points: 748.52 You know you’re a TopCoder when…

…you challenge your professors to an SRM. ZorbaTHut - ValD NGBronson

snewman

tjq

[coding tournament] SEMIFINAL ROOM 4 [23] Ben Wilhelm Nathan Bronson > United States, WA > United States, NC Seed: 4 Seed: 5

ZorbaTHut NGBronson Current Rating: 2881 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC What is most important to you in a job (e.g., Current Rating: 3005 Current Ranking: 9 technology? reward, recognition, benefits, salary)? BW Technologies that aren’t hot, but simply NB The most important thing is the quality of Current Ranking: 6 Rating Percentile: 99.87 convenient and work. Few people who use team of which I am a part. Rating Percentile: 99.91 Number of Ratings: 118 cellphones use them because they’re hot Number of Ratings: 61 Highest Rating: 3198 technology - they use them because they TC If you could use your IT abilities to work for Highest Rating: 3168 TC Earnings: $20,100.00 fill a niche and they do it unobtrusively. any company in the world, which would it be That’s what technology is going towards. and why? TC Earnings: $36,792.00 NB My brain does not have an index that allows Overall Competition Statistics TC What is your preferred operating system me to answer that in a reasonable amount Overall Competition Statistics and favorite IDE and programming of time. Success Rate 1-100%: language? Success Rate 1-100%: BW WinXP, MSVC.net, C++. It works. TC What do you think will be the next “hot” Challenges Made: 55 65.45% Challenges Made: 53 75.47% technology? Challenges Defended: 37 56.76% TC To what degree has TopCoder improved her NB I think there will be a lot of innovations Challenges Defended: 29 62.07% programming skills, if at all? in small devices such as PDAs and smart BW I don’t know. A lot. My coding is a *lot* more Problems: 357 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: phones, both in the way we interact with Problems: 183 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: accurate now - we just got a bug list at them (voice recognition, better displays, Submissions: 329 92.16% work, and out of 250 bugs, 4 of them are and better UI design) and in the way they Submissions: 169 92.35% mine. are powered (by fuel instead of by battery). Correct Submissions: 266 80.85% Correct Submissions: 142 84.02% Eventually interacting with a small device Overall Accuracy: 74.51% TC How old were you when you wrote your won’t be like breathing through a straw. Overall Accuracy: 77.60% first piece of code? What programming Average Points: 891.52 language was it in? What did you write? TC What is your preferred operating system Average Points: 996.83 BW 6 or so? BASIC, and I presume it was “hello and favorite IDE and programming world”. I don’t remember any of my early language? 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics programs. NB At work I use Linux and at home Mac OSX. 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics IntelliJ IDEA is by far the best IDE I have Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: TC How did you create your handle? ever seen. For work I prefer Java, I think it is Challenges Made: 0 BW It’s Jabba the Hutt’s father. I got it from a the best language available at the moment Challenges Made: 2 50.00% Christmas present - the Star Wars Encyclo- for building large systems. Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 1 0% paedia - that I’d gotten a few days before I 0 decided to get a new handle. : P TC How old were you when you wrote your Problems: Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: first piece of code? What programming 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Submissions: 9 75.00% TC What is your favorite movie? language was it in? What did you write? Submissions: 9 75.00% BW Toys NB When I was 7 or 8, I programmed a Com- Correct Submissions: 6 66.67% modore 64 to move a helicopter shaped Correct Submissions: 9 100.00% TC What is your favorite hobby? sprite around on the screen, but I was just Overall Accuracy: Overall Accuracy: 50.00% BW Games. : ) following a recipe. My first original program 75.00% was written in Turbo Pascal when I was 14, Average Points: 458.04 Average Points: 767.31 [24] and it plotted polynomial equations. [25] Steve Newman Jiqing Tang > United States, CA > Hong Kong Seed: 19 Seed: 22

snewman tjq Current Rating: 3132 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC What types of companies are you most in- Current Rating: 2754 Current Ranking: 4 technology? terested in working for (e.g., size, industry)? SN I don’t think we’ll ever again see a time Why? Current Ranking: 11 Rating Percentile: 99.94 when there’s only one “hot” technology. The JT I hope I can work for a huge company, such Rating Percentile: 99.84 Number of Ratings: 8 wireless revolution has clearly just begun as IBM or Microsoft because the environ- Number of Ratings: 54 Highest Rating: 3132 to play out -- this has many aspects, of ment and the culture of the company will be Highest Rating: 2762 which WiFi is one of the most prominent essential to an individual’s development. TC Earnings: $175.00 at the moment. RFID tags, ubiquitous sen- TC Earnings: $675.00 sors, and ultimately ubiquitous computing TC If you could use your IT abilities to work for Overall Competition Statistics will no doubt have a huge impact over the any company in the world, which would it be Overall Competition Statistics medium and long term. Personally, I’m very and why? Success Rate 1-100%: interested in technologies that help people JT IBM, Microsoft, or Philips. They’re the Success Rate 1-100%: locate, manage, and share information industry giants, and in these companies, we Challenges Made: 5 100.00% Challenges Made: 39 61.54% -- this ranges from developments in wire- can shape the future of the IT industry. Challenges Defended: 1 100.00% less and portable/ubiquitous computing, Challenges Defended: 22 72.73% to groupware and P2P software, to social TC What do you think will be the next “hot” shifts such as the rise of blogging. Problems: 24 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: technology? Problems: 162 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: JT Pervasive Computing and mobile network. Submissions: 23 95.83% TC What is your preferred operating system Submissions: 127 78.40% and favorite IDE and programming TC What is your preferred operating system Correct Submissions: 23 100.00% Correct Submissions: 106 83.46% language? and favorite IDE and programming Overall Accuracy: 95.83% SN Operating system: Mac OSX. IDE: at the language? Overall Accuracy: 65.43% moment my job requires that I use Visual JT I use Windows XP and GCC and Average Points: 1244.53 Studio.NET, but the last IDE I really liked Dev-Cpp Average Points: 686.56 was Apple’s Macintosh Programmer’s Work- shop (MPW). Programming language: C#. TC How old were you when you wrote your 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics first piece of code? What programming 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics TC How old were you when you wrote your language was it in? What did you write? Success Rate 1-100%: Success Rate 1-100%: first piece of code? What programming JT In primary school about 11 years old, using Challenges Made: 3 100.00% language was it in? What did you write? LOGO, to draw a circle on the screen. Challenges Made: 1 100.00% SN Eight years old, BASIC. I couldn’t tell you Challenges Defended: Challenges Defended: 1 100.00% what the single first program was. Back in TC What is your favorite movie? 1 100.00% those days, I wrote a lot of simple games. JT Lord of the Rings Problems: 15 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: Problems: 12 Accuracy Rate 1-100%: TC What is your favorite movie? Submissions: 14 93.33% TC What is your favorite hobby? Submissions: 10 83.33% SN Just one? I’ll say Raiders of the Lost Ark. JT Competing in TopCoder’s SRMs. Correct Submissions: 14 100.00% Correct Submissions: 9 90.00% TC What is your favorite hobby? Overall Accuracy: 93.33% SN These days, it’s hanging out with my Overall Accuracy: 75.00% children (ages 1 and 3). Average Points: 1116.52 [26] [27] Average Points: 864.57 Goto the Control Statement (to the tune of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) By dpecora

Goto the control statement Then one crucial contest day You know you’re Had a very simple form. We heard “writer” say: Beginning coders loved him; “Goto with his fl ow so sweet a TopCoder when… BASIC GOTO’s were the norm. Makes the 1k easy street!” …you read the last All of the other coders Then all the coders loved him SRM write-up before Used to laugh and call him names; And they shouted out with glee, you read your e-mail. They wouldn’t use poor Goto “Goto the control statement - Karshikinpa In any of their coding games! (Like TC.) You will make me quite wealthyyyyyy!”

Educating the most sought-after software developers in the world

In just 28 months you'll graduate with:

• A Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science • An awesome digital portfolio of project work • Java™ and .NET™ certification Now accepting applications for January 2004 2755 E. Cottonwood Parkway, Suite 600 Salt Lake City, Utah 84121 Financial Aid is available for those who qualify. 801-438-1100 www.northface.edu The TopCoder Blues By Rustyoldman

I code in the blues Ceil(i/k) Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum An algorithm greedy I try but I lose Is not what I want to say Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum Don’t time out for n=3 ‘ Twas the Night of the Contest By dpecora and polgara I want to be red I challenge bad code I got the buggy code blues Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum and there gonna get youze ‘Twas the night of the contest, and all through the net As more and more minutes slowly went by But my bugs are not dead but my test case is a load someday. All the hackers were thinking, “I’ll win money yet.” The coders gave up, with a despairing sigh. Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum The reference books sat by the keyboards in piles There was little hope, the coders had no clue 50 points down the road (why me?) Ba bum ba ba bum Along with the printouts of Javadoc files. When along came Coder Claus, with some DLLves too. An i for a j Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum (watch out!) The coders were nestled all snug in their chairs And in a twinkling, I heard on the net Did I mean it that way? Is it time for DP? While practice room problem sets gave them big scares; The clicking and clacking of keyboards, à prêt. Their friends and their mates were locked out of the room, As I drew in my hand, and was turning to code Ba bum ba ba bum Ba bum ba ba bum For the start of the contest approached with their doom. On my monitor, Coder Claus’ pic flashed & glowed. Or a quick brute force, whee! Then all through the net there arose such a clatter, He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, Their keyboards awoke all at once all a-chatter, And his clothes were tarnished, the poor old coot. Away to their rooms they all flew like a flash, A bundle of packages, installed on his notebook, Tore open the problems and prayed for no crash. He looked just like the hobbit, Mr. Peregrine Took.

The monitors on their desks, keyboards in tow He was chubby and plump, as a guru should be, Gave off a green, unearthly glow. And I laughed because he inspired such glee. When what to their wondering eyes did appear A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, But a 1000-point question to fill them with fear. Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

Write an ODBC driver, so lively and quick He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work To work with Windows, and yet be all slick Added sun.jdbc.odbc to TC’s environment, no joke. More rapid than OS2, their thoughts they came And laying his finger aside of his nose, “It was impossible! We can’t win at this game.” And giving a nod, his applet he did close.

Now NG, now dmwright, now jonmac and quibits The screen went all-dark as his pic faded away, To solve this problem will take all of your wits And we all felt a sense of collective dismay, Go to the SUN site, or Deitel’s home page But I heard him exclaim, ere he sunk out of sight, Dash away, dash away, see what you can salvage. “MONEY to ALL, and to ALL a GOOD-NIGHT!”

��

�� [31] You know you’re a TopCoder when… [component competition] … you prepare to do laundry by timing the washers and dryers at the laundromat and then writing an optimization algorithm to figure out how to get your laundry done the quickest. - leadhyena_inran

Component Design Component Development

Pops kyky aksonov rnielsen

[33] Tim Roberts Sergey Kalinichenko >United States, NC > United States, CA Seed: 1 Seed: 6

Pops kyky

TopCoder Rating: 1783 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC What is most important to you in a job (e.g., TopCoder Rating: 2170 Earnings: $5,966.62 technology? reward, recognition, benefits, salary)? Earnings: $4,670.75 TR VM type languages (CLR, JVM , ???). Com- SK Developing new things with smart piled languages are being quickly shutoff co-workers. to utilities and system level stuff. VM type languages will be accepted because of their TC What do you think will be the next “hot” performance and capabilities. technology? Overall Component Statistics SK Platforms for building applications. Overall Component Statistics TC Which technology company do you most Level One Average Points: admire? For what reasons? TC What is your preferred operating system Level One Average Points: TR Easy - IBM. I don’t know how many times and favorite IDE and programming Submissions Made: Submissions Made: 4 90.22 I’ve seen them dying and have made a language? 2 80.78 comeback. Their research division is top SK I prefer Solaris as an OS for which to Level Two Average Points: notch. Secondly - got to give it up for Micro- develop software, and Windows as an OS Level Two Average Points: soft and their marketing department. to use while developing that software. I use Submissions Made: 4 95.77 Submissions Made: 3 82.03 JBuilder IDE to write Java, and Microsoft TC What is your preferred operating system Visual Studio .NET to write C++ and C#. Total Submissions: 8 and favorite IDE and programming My favorite programming language is C++. Total Submissions: 5 language? Total Wins: 8 Total Wins: 3 TR For work - OS/390, ISPF and Cobol/DB2. TC To what degree has TopCoder improved For play - Windows, Eclipse and Java. your programming skills, if at all? SK It has made me more disciplined while 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics TC How old were you when you wrote your writing code. 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics first piece of code? What programming Level One Average Points: language was it in? TC How old were you when you wrote your Level One Average Points: TR Ugh - had to be about 8 or so. My dad had first piece of code? What programming Submissions Made: Submissions Made: 1 89.67 a dialup connection (the old phone suction language was it in? 2 80.78 cup thing) to Purdue’s big Dec system. I SK I was 16 years old when I wrote my first Level Two Average Points: helped him create some of his simulations. program in BASIC, implementing a comput- Level Two Average Points: ABout 12 or so, I madE enough money on er game where the computer always wins. Submissions Made: Submissions Made: 1 98.17 my route to purchace a brand spanken new 1 80.03 TRS-80 and actually sold a wargame I cre- TC What is your favorite movie? Total Submissions: 2 ated. Wrote mostly in assembler and some SK Amadeus by Milos Forman. Total Submissions: 3 BASIC at first. Total Wins: 2 Total Wins: 1 TC What is your favorite hobby? TC How did you create your handle? SK Programming for fun. TR I have three kids - enough said! [34] [35] Pavlo Aksonov Rob Nielsen > Ukraine >Australia Seed: 3 Seed: 4

aksonov rnielsen

TopCoder Rating: 1572 TC If you could use your IT abilities to work for TC Describe the most challenging system you TopCoder Rating: 1293 Earnings: $5,670.45 any company in the world, which would it be have played a role in developing. Earnings: $24.00 and why? RN A Command and Control Information Sys- PA Microsoft or Sun, because they are leaders tem for the Australian Special Forces. of software technologies (.NET, J2EE). TC What is most important to you in a job (e.g., TC Describe the most challenging system you reward, recognition, benefits, salary)? Overall Component Statistics have played a role in developing. RN Most important would have to be interest- Overall Component Statistics PA Universal engine for creating various dating ing and challenging work. Level One Average Points: sites. Level One Average Points: TC Which technology company do you most Submissions Made: Submissions Made: 3 95.20 TC Which technology company do you most admire? For what reasons? 5 92.26 admire? For what reasons? RN Google, for keeping true to their main goal Level Two Average Points: PA Microsoft, because they have created .NET and not cluttering their pages, while at the Level Two Average Points: Visual Studio that is revolutionary in same time adding so many useful features Submissions Made: 2 91.06 Submissions Made: 2 92.19 software development. to the site.

Total Submissions: 5 TC What do you think will be the next “hot” TC What do you think will be the next “hot” Total Submissions: 5 technology? Total Wins: 2 technology? Total Wins: 1 PA Nanotechnologies, biotechnologies RN Affordable, ubiquitous wireless networking. It’s not quite there yet. TC What is your preferred operating system 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics and favorite IDE and programming TC What is your preferred operating system 2003 TCO Tournament Statistics language? and favorite IDE and programming Level One Average Points: PA Windows XP, Visual Studio, C++ language? Level One Average Points: RN OS: WinXP; IDE: TextPad; Language: Java Submissions Made: 2 96.53 TC What is your favorite movie? Submissions Made: 3 93.05 PA Groundhog Day TC How old were you when you wrote your Level Two Average Points: first piece of code? What programming Level Two Average Points: TC What is your favorite hobby? language was it in? What did you write? Submissions Made: 2 91.06 Submissions Made: 2 92.19 PA Chess, Music RN I was probably about 10. My first computer was a Vic-20 so the language was BASIC. Total Submissions: 4 TC Tell me something about yourself that Total Submissions: 4 would surprise others. Total Wins: 2 TC What is your favorite movie? Total Wins: 1 PA I awake at 4am to participate in TopCoder RN Pulp Fiction rounds. [36] [37] [review boards] [review boards] component design component development

Sean Owen Lai Kwan Wong TopCoder Rating: 1682 TopCoder Rating: 819 TCS Earnings: $5,526.35 TCS Earnings: $542.00 srowen graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Computer lkw graduated from Queens College and is a Sun Certified Science and has several Sun certifications. As a member of the review Programmer for the Java2 Platform. Joining the review board has given her greater exposure to the software design process in a boards, srowen enjoys evaluating code, designs, approaches, lkw srowen technologies and documentation. group setting.

Ken Vogel Bryan Chen TopCoder Rating: 2246 TopCoder Rating: 1417 TCS Earnings: $3,125.25 TCS Earnings: $784.00 Ken Vogel has reviewed over 20 components including .NET BryanChen earned his way onto the review board by submitting and Java submissions. He has also earned over $3,000 from several winning development solutions. He is currently attending Carnegie Mellon University and sees the review board as a way to Ken_Vogel TopCoder Software by reviewing components and submitting more BryanChen than five winning component designs. contribute back to the TopCoder Software development process.

Valeriy Pelyushenko TopCoder Rating: 1863 Mikhail Gambarian TCS Earnings: $4,055.72 TopCoder Rating: 1842 TCS Earnings: $1,021.00 valeriy graduated from St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He enjoys being a member of TopCoder because of mishagam graduated from Moscow University and is a well TopCoder’s spirit of innovation. Not only has Valeriy served on the rounded TopCoder member, competing in both Java and .NET ArchitectureReview Board, but he has also served on the Development competitions. He has contributed as a designer and developer and he valeriy Review Board and the Application Development and Design Review currently serves on both the component and application development Boards. review boards. mishagam

[38] [39] [TopCoder statistics] *All statistics printed in this program are as of November 15, 2003. TopCoder Rating Distribution

Red (2200+) Yellow (1500-2199) 1% 8%

Blue (1200-1499) 15% Gray (1-899) 46%

Green (900-1199) 30%

The United States makes up the majority of the rated TopCoder membership - with 3,268 rated students and 2,065 rated professionals. The following chart depicts the 10 countries with the next highest rated TopCoder membership counts.

400

350

300

250 Professionals

200 Students 150

100

India China Brazil Canada Australia Germany Sweden Romania

United Kingdom Russian Federation [40] ��

� � � � � � � � � � ��

��

Table of Contents] ��� ��������� ������� �������

Table of Contents] ��