Last week, we ran yet another tech initiative at the company – our first algorithmic contest to test our brains and improve our problem-solving skills. The competition consisted of 5 algorithmic problems on CodeChef, which had to be solved in two and a half hours. The organizer of the event, our techie Georgi Anchev, was inspired by school olympiads in informatics and revealed: “Since we usually initiate team games, I wanted my colleagues to compete individually this time”. He also came up with challenges related to our team culture by adding a fun element to the scenarios.
The solution strategies of the set of problems included a Breadth-first Search (BFS) algorithm, bitwise operations, data preprocessing and dynamic programming. The scenarios behind the problems contained a curse from TV prophets, a workout supplement plan, automation of the Bulgarian administration’s processes, an expert doing a jewelry appraisal and calculation of the shortest possible route in Super Mario.
Winners were awarded with mind-boggling puzzles and brain teaser games in sync with the algorithmic contest. The code war encouraged all contestants to later discuss the problems together and think of alternative solutions. The winner is expected to think of new problems and lead the next competition. We can’t wait!
