No surprises with this announcement, right? Anshuman has been a force to reckon with on CodeChef since the very beginning. He’s won the March, April and May challenge back to back and because of his excellent performance, he even interned with us at Directi during the summer (of course, the ulterior motive was to stop him from winning through June and July ;))

Without further ado, here’s Anshuman, our Programmer of the Month for August 2009!

Name: Anshuman Singh
Age: 21
Institute: IIIT, Hyderabad
Userid: anshuman_singh
Twitter ID: anshuman26

Brief introduction about yourself (under 140 characters):
A pretty normal guy with high expectations from life.

How/When did you start programming?
I started programming when I was in high school but wasn’t very serious about it till my first year in college. That was the time when I was influenced to some extent by my seniors and managed to get a little guidance from them. From then on, it gradually changed from a mere interest to a passion.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
I’d definitely be watching a movie or some sitcom. I am a big movie buff. I frequently (on weekends or on some occasion skipping classes) take a day out watching movies/show on a full trot. I, along with my friends, have planned numerous night outs where we continuously watch movies and then sleep throughout the day.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
Prizes. To be very honest, almost everything. The problem set is nice along with the organization. I am really thankful to the CodeChef team for having something like this and let us be a part of it.

How many hours a day do you program?
Depends. It varies from 7-8 hours of programming to nothing at all. The numbers increase when preparing for ICPC or something similar.

What’s your favourite book and why?
I am not much of a book guy. Course books are already a lot to contend with :P. Anyhow, I did enjoy reading Harry Potter (All volumes).

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
For Dinner, Megan Fox definitely . Donald Knuth is someone whom I would like to meet personally. Dish: Anything works.

What are your plans for the future?
Not sure at all. I will probably go for higher studies to work on something challenging.