Greetings, CodeCheffers!

We have our Programmer of the Month for October: Hiroto Sekido.

Most of you may know him as laycurse. He has been a part of CodeChef since November 2010. Since then, he has solved 65 problems. He currently ranks 2nd in the short contest format, and 80th in the long contest format. He has recently joined the CodeChef problem setting panel as well, something we’re quite happy about.

Here’s some first-hand information about him…

Name: Hiroto Sekido
Age: 26
University: Kyoto University
User id: laycurse

- Brief introduction about yourself.

I live in Kyoto, and I am a doctoral student of Kyoto University.
My hobby is, of course, programming.
I have a great time at CodeChef, TopCoder, CodeForces and some other online judges.
Other than programming, I bought a digital single-lens reflex camera recently.
Sometimes I enjoy taking photos with the camera.

- What got you into programming?

ACM/ICPC.
It made me realise there is much pleasure in solving problems with programming.

- Have you ever wanted to be something else, apart from a programmer?

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a “HERO”.
A HERO is strong.
A HERO can survive the world.

- What would we find you doing on a Saturday evening?

if( there is a programming competition ){
go to the competition;
} else if( I am sleepy ){
go to sleep;
} else if( rand()%2 == 0 ){
go to sleep;
} else {
do something; /* for example, playing video games or a short trip in
Kyoto with new my camera */
}

- How long have you been participating at CodeChef? What brought you here?

chaemon told me about CodeChef in November 2010.
Since then, I have been participating consistently.

- Preferred language(s)?

C, C++, and Japanese.

- Programming is to you as… ? e.g. water is to life.

Programming is a part of my soul.

- Any advice you’d like to offer for other programmers?

I have only one advice.
Have fun:)

- What are your plans for the future?

I would like to attend more onsite programming events (like
TopCoder Open or Google Code Jam) as a competitor.

Cheers!
Team CodeChef.

Welcome to the June Programmer of the Month edition!

This month we have with us Tomek Czajka who is our Programmer of the Month. Tomek has been part of CodeChef since July 2009 and has submitted over 100 problems since then. He is ranked 4th in the long contest and 24th in the short contest format. We hope this is just the start and we have lots to see from this great mind. On behalf of the CodeChef team, we wish him good luck for the future.  Now let’s see what Tomek has to tell us about himself.

Name:  Tomek Czajka
Age:  30
Company: Google
User id:  tomek

Brief introduction about yourself:

I graduated from University of Warsaw and Purdue University, now I am working for Google, currently on Google Offers. Programming competitions have always been among the most intensive and enjoyable events for me.

How/When did you start programming?

I got a SAM Coupé for my 12th birthday. I quickly learned a lot about how the computer worked and learned to program in the built-in BASIC, and then in Z80 assembly.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

I play volleyball in the evenings on Google campus.

What do you like most about CodeChef?

Interesting problems in the monthly contests. Also the wide variety of compilers available.

How many hours a day do you program?

Between 2 to 6 hours.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?

Some ancient Mediterranean cuisine with Euclid and Archimedes.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?

Enjoy doing it. If you are bored, you stop learning and become much less productive.

What are your plans for the future?

I will have a kid or two.

Cheers!
Team CodeChef

Welcome to the May Programmer of the Month edition!

This month we have with us Egor Kulikov who is our Programmer of the Month. Egor has been part of CodeChef since March 2010 and has submitted close to 80 problems in a years time. He is ranked 3rd in the short contest format. We hope this is just the start and we have lots to see from this great mind. On behalf of the CodeChef team, we wish him good luck for the future.  Now let’s see what Egor has to tell us about himself.

Name:  Egor Kulikov
Age:  25
Institute:  Diploma of specialist at Moscow State University
Company: Devexperts
User id:  EgorK

Brief introduction about yourself:

Nothing special. I’m just your generic software engineer with a loving family (hello to Kate and Dmitry) that likes his job to the extent that he can devote a big chunk of his free time to programming also.

How/When did you start programming?

I started at secondary school, but never seriously participated in school olympiads. I started to take it seriously at the second year in university.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

Playing soccer and computer games, listening hard rock (but hey, I do that while I do programming).

What do you like most about CodeChef?

Solving tough algorithmic problem without strict time limit over my head.

How many hours a day do you program?

As this is my work – about 8 hours a day.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?

I think it would be dinner with Klauss Meine and we will have steak (medium-raw for me ) with baked potatoes.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?

Participating in any contest that I can find.

What are your plans for the future?

I hope to qualify for TCO again. That is the best onsite competition among those I participated in.

Cheers!
Team CodeChef

Welcome to the April Programmer of the Month edition!

This month we have with us Md. Mabubul Hasan(aka Kungfu Panda) who is our Programmer of the Month. Mahbubul has been part of CodeChef since July 2009 and has taken part in almost all CodeChef’s contests, just at the age of 24 he is already a great programmer. He is ranked 5th in the long format and 15th in the shorter format of the contest. We hope this is just the start and we have lots to see from this great mind. On behalf of the CodeChef team, we wish him good luck for the future.  Now let’s see what Mahbubul has to tell us about himself.

Name:  Md. Mahbubul Hasan
Age:  24
Institute:  Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
User id:  white_king
Twitter ID: shanto86@gmail.com

Brief introduction about yourself:

I graduated from Department of Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2011. Currently I am lecturer in this institute. I have a younger sister. My father is a Professor and my mother is house wife. I am a bit shy and introvert person infront of strangers. But I am quite talkative with my close friends. I have a very bad memory, I forget very easily. My face recognition system is very bad. Very often I forget my close friends name, cant recognise familiar one and also make mistake some stranger as my friend

How/When did you start programming?

In grade 6, I saw a grade 11 text book describing QBasic at back. I was very happy when my first programme ran succesfully. After that in grade 7, I came across visual basic and made some GUI based programme. I was really very excited at that time to make a GUI based programme so easily. Later, I helped my father making a result processing database software in visual foxpro. In grade 9, I saw a code of racing game in C in a computer magazine. I coded all but it did not compiled properly. And I did not know C then. So I learned C from a book which seemed quite complex comparing to Basic languages. After learning basic of C, I learned about online judge uva and tried to solve but without success. I tried for a month but out of luck. Could not solve a single problem. Then I found a book where there were about 50 solves of acm problems. I learnt that conio.h is not allowed in uva then And from then I started to solve uva problem and never turned back. I solved lots of problems learned lots of algorithms, participated in many online contests, solved in different OJs. Participated in Bangladesh Informatics Olympiad and became champion, but for visa problem we could not attend IOI in Poland in 2005. Later we were invited to participate in ICPC Dhaka site 2005 unofficially. We became runner up there beating all the universities of Bangladesh, just Chinese team from Fudan University was ahead of us. In 2007 we became champion of dhaka site, 2008 runner-up. I participated in World Finals 2008 and 2009. I also participated in Google codejam India site. From 2006 to 2011 we participated in over 30 national contests and became champion in 27 contests.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

I love math. I sometimes read articles, books on mathematics. I also wrote two math books for our school kids. Professor M Kaykobad helped me a lot in this regard. I like to watch movie. I also like songs specially old songs which might be a bit uncommon among others.

What do you like most about CodeChef?

Codechef is a very good platform for programmers. I specially like their devotion to bring up the indian teams. Being a problem setter in ICPC Kanpur site, I knew genorosity of DirectI. I like the long contest and short contest both. But recently I am not getting time to participate fully, thats what makes me sad. There are lots of things to learn from Codechef monthly contests. I sometime envy my juniors that they are getting the opportunity to participate in these great contests but in our time there was not such.

How many hours a day do you program?

It depends. I still like to participate in Codechef, Codeforce. In my study years, I used to spend around 6 to 8 hours but now it is just bound to few online contests only.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?

I would love to have some dinner with the coding giant Petr and Tiancheng Lou aka ACRush. Any kind of dish will be fine for me if they give some delicious desert after dinner

What is the secret to being a good programmer?

There is no secret. Work Hard, try to participate in all the online contests and try to know the solutions of the problems that you could not solve in the contest.

What are your plans for the future?

I don’t know exactly. But I just want to take right decision at the right moment. I like research. So I think I would go for a Ph. D. and then some research group. I also have interest for industry. So I also might join some good company and see if I like there, in that case I am gonna stay there for long.

I would like to thank my family, my friends, some online programmer friends who helped me a lot. I also like to give special thank to Shahriar Rouf for being my team mate from the first contest till the last one in national contests, he has been a great support.

Cheers!
Team CodeChef

Welcome to the 2010 – 2011 Programmer of the Year blog post.

CodeChef has completed 2 years now and we’d like to thank everyone for making it so successful. Someone that we would love to highlight this month is Zac Friggstad for his invaluable and continuous contribution to CodeChef as a Problem Setter, Tester and Moderator.

Zac has been on our problem setting panel since the beginning of last year and has been doing a fantastic job for us at CodeChef.

Lets take a look at his contributions in all our contest last year:

Since April 2010, Zac has been part of our contest moderation panel every single month. In this duration he has acted as a problem tester 4 times, set 8 challenge problems and 12 other long contests problems and has been the author for our CookOffs 3 times already!

Zac has been our specialist in setting the Challenge problem for a while now, and though he’s never participated in our programming contests, we would like to bestow the title of Programmer of the Year for 2010-2011. On behalf of CodeChef, we’d like to thank Zac, for all the contributions he has made to the programming community so far and hope he continues to do so.  :)

Here’s more from the programmer of the Year himself:

Name:  Zachary Friggstad
Age:  28
Institute:  The University of Alberta
Webpage: http://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~zacharyf/

Brief introduction about yourself:

I’m currently in the 4th year of my PhD studies at the U of Alberta where I study the theory behind efficient algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems. Most of the problems I study are NP-hard so I focus mainly on approximation algorithms. I also enjoy pure mathematics; I almost chose to do my graduate studies in mathematics instead of CS. A few very helpful professors showed me how even advanced tools from mathematics can be used to study algorithms and the theory of computing, so I started a graduate degree in theoretical computing science instead. I am also one of the coaches for our ACM
ICPC team at the U of Alberta and I’m proud to say that we have qualified for the World Finals once again!

The other major part of my life is my family. I have been married to Jenne for almost 7 years now and we now have two boys named Gabriel (3 years) and Lucas (6 months).

How/When did you start programming?

I learned BASIC at school when I was 15 years old. My school was small and we didn’t have any teachers who knew how to instruct the course, so I had to take it by correspondence under the supervision of a teacher at a distant school. For the most part, this consisted of me reading through his course notes and occasionally meeting via ICQ.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

If I’m at home, I’m either playing board/card games with my wife, playing with my boys, watching a movie or playing video games. I’ve also been known to read about interesting topics in algebra, topology, and number theory that I don’t encounter often in my everyday research. Our favourite family vacation is to go tenting on a warm and sunny weekend and I also like playing volleyball and badminton when I get the chance.

What do you like most about CodeChef?

The ability to set problems that can’t appear in the normal ACM-style competition. I enjoy creating very hard problems that are still feasible in the CodeChef setting, but require a fair amount of thinking and maybe even some research to solve. I also like the tie breaking problems as they give me a chance to present optimization problems I’ve encountered in research literature in a more concrete setting.

How many hours a day do you program?

Apart from CodeChef, probably less than one hour since most of my research is theoretical. This definitely increases when I’m preparing problems for a contest.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?

I would eat sushi with Paul Erdos.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?

Practice is the key, but you have to know where to look. Try hard problems and don’t be afraid to spend a lot of time learning new algorithms. Always be on the lookout to learn new things. Also, random bits can be your friends

What are your plans for the future?

I hope to graduate either this year or next. Ultimately, I am looking to settle at a university as a professor with both research and teaching responsibilities. Hopefully this also includes involvement in a programming contest club too! However, I expect that I will be a postdoctoral researcher for a while after I graduate since there aren’t many openings these days.

Cheer!
Harsh Munshaw
Team CodeChef

Welcome to the February Programmer of the Month edition!

This month we have a young 20 year old Rudradev Basak who is our Programmer of the Month. Rudradev has been part of CodeChef since August and surprisingly, just at the age of 20 he is already considered a great programmer. In the last 5 months, he has been in the winning 4 times already, we hope this is just the start and we have a lot to see from this great mind. On behalf of the CodeChef team, we wish him good luck for the future.  Now let’s see what Rudradev has to tell us about himself.

Name:  Rudradev Basak
Age:  20
Institute:  IIT Delhi
User id:  rudradevbasak

Brief introduction about yourself:

I am a 3rd year student doing my B.Tech. in CSE@IITD. I have always liked to solve puzzles, both mathematical and algorithmic.

How/When did you start programming?

I learnt BASIC in middle school, and a bit of Java and C++ in standards 10 and 12 respectively. I liked to code even then, and of course I did learn a lot in my first couple of year at IITD, but I was introduced to competitive programming only in around April 2010. Also I owe it to my teammates (Nikhil and Pradeep) for getting me interested in ACM ICPC in around August last year, and I have been programming a lot since then.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

Between IITD curriculum and programming, there is not much time for much else. However when I do get time, you would find me playing games, watching movies with my friends, reading fiction or playing with a Rubik’s Cube.

What do you like most about CodeChef?

The fact that the long contests really give you time to learn and try out new things. Also it has been a great platform to boost programming awareness among Indians.

How many hours a day do you program?

Depends. Can vary from zero to ten depending on my mood and how much other work I have.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?

Am not sure about the person, but I would probably have a couple of Chicken Rolls

What is the secret to being a good programmer?

A passion for programming, a bit of hard work (but it is not really ‘hard work’ if you really have the passion), and also some inherent math and logical ability.

And sure for success in online contests you need a lot of practice.

What are your plans for the future?

I would like to complete my undergraduate studies, and in the meanwhile, try to perform well at this (and also hopefully the next) ICPC World Finals. After that I may go for higher studies in CS, but I am not very sure.

Happy New Year to all, hope you had a wonderful year and wish you’ll good luck for the years to come. A New Year and New Programmer for the January 2011. We have Oleg Chernyahovskii a 29 year old professional developer. Oleg has been part of CodeChef since July and has being climbing the ladder very fast, since September he has been amongst the top 5 winners every month. Let’s see what Oleg has to tell us about himself.

Name: Oleg Chernyahovskii
Age: 29
Institute: Novgorod State University
User id: Oleg

Brief introduction about yourself:

I’m professional developer and as hobby participate in different programming contests, solve algorithmic problems and puzzles.

How/When did you start programming?

I started programming at school when I was 14. Bought some Pascal books and even made some useful programs with Turbo Vision. After school I was sure that development is my future and entered programming department of University.

But only in 2008 when I tried myself in Google Codejam and didn’t take one of first 500 places I started learn general algorithms. In Codejam 2009 I took 38^th place.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

I’m happy dad now and spend my free time playing with my little son.

What do you like most about CodeChef?

I solved quite lot problems now, but each problem on CodeChef is original to me. I like monthly challenges – trying to crack some problem 3 days and finally solve it on fourth gives me a lot of fun.

How many hours a day do you program?

I work on my job 8-10 hours a day and around 1-2 hours increase my algorithmic skills, crack some problems.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?

Have no idea J I’m not big fan of food or famous people, I’d prefer little family dinner in some cozy café.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” L.Carroll.

Same with our programmer work – you never can tell “now I’m good programmer and can work with only knowledge I have” I guess good programmer is one who always trying to learn something new – algorithms, languages, technologies.

And sure for success in online contests you need a lot of practice.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m planning to grow inside my Company.