Programming Contests

I like participating in programming contests very much. In programming contests you have to solve several algorithmic problems alone or in a team in a limited amount of time.

The most famous programming contest certainly is ACM's annual ICPC (International Collegiate Programming Contest) where you compete in groups of three people. Contests last for five hours and your team only has one computer. I will participate in the World Finals 2004 in Prague in the UBC0 Team for the University of British Columbia, after winning the Pacific North West Regional Contest where Stanford and Berkley competed as well.

I'm a member of TopCoder, where you have a 1:15h online contest about once a week. The only drawback is, that most contests are at the middle of the night in european time zones. My TopCoder handle is skanthak. I will be competing in the on-site finals of the TopCoder Collegiate Challenge 2004 in Boston.