We’re very happy to introduce our 11th Programmer of the Month – Tasnim Khan. He describes himself as a simple but lucky man and has been active on CodeChef since October 2009. Tasnim has consistently been part of the Top 10 Indian programmers in our contests this year. He even stood first amongst the Indian programmers in the February 2010 Challenge. Congratulations Tasnim!

Now let’s find out what our Programmer of the Month for June 2010 has to say.

Name: Tasnim Khan
Age: 20
Institute: IIIT Allahabad
Userid: rockaustin2k6
Twitter ID: rockaustin2k6

How/When did you start programming?
I started coding when I entered college. Seniors and friends inspired me the most.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
Typerace with friends or watch movies. Shows like WWE and TNA. Otherwise I play soccer or sleep.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
The monthly challenges. They are conceptual and have helped me a lot.

How many hours a day do you program?
Not much.

What’s your favourite book and why?
Not any till now.  

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
The person would be Mark Calaway(The Undertaker). The dish would be anything he prefers.

What are your plans for the future.
Getting a job before I complete my final year in college. After working for 2 or 3 years, I might go for higher studies.         

Tasnim was also chosen as TopCoder’s Coder of the Month for August 2009.

Hi guys,

The May 2010 Challenge has come to the end and we have had a lot of ties this time!. Let’s find out who our winners are this month!

India:

1. Ajay Somani – Rs.8500
1. Subrahmanyam Velaga – Rs.8500
3. Imran – Rs.3750
3. Yash – Rs.3750
3. Tasnim Khan – Rs.3750
3. Namit D. Shetty – Rs.3750
7. Ankul Garg – Rs.1250
7. Pankaj Kumar – Rs.1250
7. Deepak Agarwal – Rs.1250
7. Girish Kadli – Rs.1250
7. Antarpreet Singh – Rs.1250
7. Vaibhav Shankar – Rs.1250
7. Anish Shankar – Rs.1250
7. Ravi Villuri – Rs.1250
7. Surendra Kumar Meena – Rs.1250
7. Sameer – Rs.1250
7. Samyam – Rs.1250
7. Gunjan Sharma – Rs.1250
7. Vimal Poonia – Rs.1250
7. Praveen SP – Rs.1250
7. Suhash – Rs.1250
7. Sushil Nath – Rs.1250
7. SOC – Rs.1250
7. Xufan Zhang – Rs.1250

Global:

1. Mark Greve – $300
2. David Stolp – $225
3. Dmytro Dzhulgakov – $150
4. Vladyslav Simonenko – $100
5. Mahbub – $75
6. Balakrishnan Varadarajan – $50
6. Pawel Gawrychowski – $50
6. Tanaeem – $50
6. Kyungmin Min – $50
10. Stephen Merriman – $50

Contest Statistics:

Congratulations to all of you that won this month and all the best to everybody for the next competition.

We have added editorials written by our problem setters to our wiki page here. They describe the thought process behind the creation of each of this month’s problems, so make sure you take a look at them and let us know what you think.

Also, do let us know how you found our contest and contest problems this year. We’re always looking for as much feedback as we can get.
Cheers,
Basil

Hi guys,

Unfortunately, the  CodeChef domain expired over the weekend which triggered a few internal issues on our end. All of this has been fixed now but if anyone is still facing errors of any kind, do let us know.

To make up for the time lost we are extending the May 2010 Contest by 24 hours. It will now end on 12th May 2010 at 15:00 hrs IST.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused and all the best for the rest of the competition!

Cheers,
Team CodeChef

Let’s all say hello to Adrian Kugel, our Programmer of the Month for May 2010! Though he hasn’t ever been a part of the global top 5,  he has shown consistent performance, improvement, and a definite passion for programming ever since he showed up on the CodeChef scene in November ’09. This is something that we would like to acknowledge and  would love to see in more of our participants. Congratulations Adrian! Keep up the good work.

Name: Adrian Kügel
Age: 29
Institute: University of Ulm
Userid: akuegel

How/When did you start programming?
I started at the age of 17 when a teacher showed me how to write a simple program in Basic.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
I spend much time with my girlfriend; we both like playing board games, reading fantasy books, go dancing.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
The interesting problems, and that there is enough time and I can manage to find some time during the contest to solve the problems.

How many hours a day do you program?
About 4 hours per day.

What’s your favourite book and why?
Lord of the Rings. I read it the first time at the age of 14 in English, although my English was not very good at the time, but still it was very fascinating for me and I couldn’t stop reading.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
I am not sure about the famous person, but it would certainly be a sweet dish.

What are your plans for the future.
Finishing my PhD in 2011, and then I will look for a job in the industry.