Hey Guy’s, it’s time to disclose the Programmer of the Month for September, Anton Lunyov. He’s a 23 year old student from the Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics of National Academy of Science of Ukraine. Anton has been participating on CodeChef since its inception in March 2009. He’s been extremely active in the past few month’s and been amongst the  winners in many of our challenges. He also did exceedingly well in both the July Cook-Off and the August Cook-Off. Lets find out what our Programmer has to say.

Name: Anton Lunyov
Age: 23
Institute: Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics of National Academy of Science of Ukraine
Userid: anton_lunyov

How/When did you start programming?
I started programming relatively late in 10-th grade after I enter the lyceum “Erudit”. I met many talented students there and wanted to be like them.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
I am a postgraduate student of my institute so I prepare my PhD thesis on spectral theory of differential operators, study scientific publications on different topics. Programming is just a hobby. I also like to play table tennis.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
I like to solve hard and challenging problems and compete with the world’s best programmers who participate here.

How many hours a day do you program?
Approximately 4-5 hours. But it depends on many things.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?
You should work hard and solve many problems per day from various online judges. But I guess without a deep knowledge in math you don’t have any chance of being a good programmer.

What are your plans for the future?
After I complete my PhD course I will continue the work of theoretical scientist in the field of operator theory but I guess I will still participate in many programming contests because I enjoy it very much.

Hey guys, it’s a new month and its time to put the spotlight on a brand new programmer on CodeChef. Our programmer of the month is Gennady Korotkevich, who at a mere 15 years of age managed to  come second in the July 2010 Challenge and win even the CodeChef Cook-Off! We’re very excited to see how well he performs in our upcoming contests. Lets find out what  our programmer from Belarus has to say.

Name: Gennady Korotkevich
Age: 15
Institute: gymnasium 56, Gomel
Userid: gennady.korotkevich

How/When did you start programming?
It happened several years ago. My parents are programmers, and I was interested in what they were doing. Soon they suggested me to try myself at programming. I tried and liked it

What do you do when you’re not programming?
The main things are doing sports and sometimes reading. I like many kinds of sports, and the favourite ones are table tennis and soccer.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
I’m not so long with CodeChef, but I like solving very hard and challenging problems even for a long period of time.

How many hours a day do you program?
It depends on many things, but in average that’s 3-4 hours I guess.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?
I don’t think there’s any secret. In my opinion, if you want to be successful in doing something, you should like the thing you do

What are your plans for the future?
Graduating my gymnasium and entering the university Though I’m still not sure which one to enter.

We would love to introduce to you our Programmer of the Month for July - Akhil Ravidas! He has been a part of the CodeChef scene since March of 2009 and has solved over 30 of our contest problems since then. He was also part of Counter Gambit, the team that came third in the CodeChef Campus SnackDown and represented India in the ACM ICPC world finals in harbin, China this year! And yes, he has even been a problem setter for two of our previous contests.

Let’s find out what our programmer from NIT Trichy has to say!

Name: Akhil Ravidas
Age: 21
Institute: National Institute of Technology, Trichy [Graduated]
Userid: akhilravidas
Twitter ID: akhilravidas

How/When did you start programming?
I started programming in my high school. But back then, I programmed in Visual Basic which was mostly drawing forms. I started competing in competitive programming contests from the second year of my college.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
My free time hobbies vary a lot. I finished my college last month and I am currently staying at a beautiful place in Kerala. So for now, I roam around in the nearby areas and click pics.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
I like the challenge problem idea of codechef. It brings in a much needed variation from the other programming contests.

How many hours a day do you program?It again varies a lot depending upon my other work. These days I’m on my computer most of the time, though the hours spent in ‘productive’ programming would be much lower than the total hours spent with my comp.

What’s your favourite book and why?
My favourite book is “Fooled by randomness” by Taleb. It is an brilliant and insightful read about role of chance and relation to skills.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
I have a very long list of people from almost every century whom I’d like to dine with. It will be very hard to choose one person. But then again, if there is a guarantee, I could try harder

Dish: Not too particular about it.

What are your plans for the future?
I am at home until fall. I look forward to working on something exciting and challenging. My long term future goal is to create a really awesome product.

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.

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.

Our programmer of the Month for April consistently ranks in the global top 5 in CodeChef Challenges. Ask him to introduce himself and he’ll say “computing machine, my window into the world, rainbow of keystrokes” A professional from Durham and an adventurous soul, here’s David Stolp, better known to you as pieguy!

Name: David Stolp
Age: 24
Institute: California State University, Chico
Userid: pieguy

How/When did you start programming?
I took a couple programming classes at university (taught in C++) while I was still in high school, but initially found it boring and even failed one class.  It wasn’t until I started programming in C that I really began to enjoy it.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
Unless I’m sleeping or cooking, I’m almost always at my computer, except for the occasional hiking trip (just got back from Death Valley).

What do you like most about CodeChef?
The contest format.  I like having multiple problems to work on simultaneously instead of having to focus on a single task until it’s finished.

How many hours a day do you program?
Probably around 8 to 10.

What’s your favourite book and why?
The Art of Computer Programming.  I’ll take Knuth over Tolkien and Rowling any day.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
Megan Fox.  If she’s not available, Richard Stallman.  Couldn’t say what the dinner would be, but the dessert would be pie.

What are your plans for the future?
I’ve recently been accepted into a master’s program, and I will likely pursue a PhD after that.

The CodeChef team wishes PieGuy all the best!

Here’s our CodeChef Programmer of the month for February 2010. He came in the top 20 for the July Challenge, and has been prominent on CodeChef ever since. He’s even submitted the tuorial Coin Game to our wiki. Lets find out more about our Programmer of the Month for February, Mark Greve.

Name : Mark Greve

Age : 25

Institute : Aarhus University

User ID : gmark

Twitter ID : markgreve

How/When did you start programming?

I started programming in BASIC around the age of 10 and switched to C++ when I
was 12. I never really wrote anything serious until I began university, and my
programming career first really took off when I started doing programming
contests.

What do you do when you’re not programming?

When I’m not spending time in front of my computer, I enjoy doing various
sports such as soccer and table tennis. I also like to go spearfishing when the
weather permits.

What do you like most about CodeChef?

The problems, of course! The problems in the monthly contests are of a really
high quality, and it’s a real pleasure working on them. Other than that I think
the CodeChef platform is quite nice. It’s cool to be able to check up on what’s
going on by looking at the blog or checking the tweets.

How many hours a day do you program?

That varies quite a lot. On average I’d say around 3 hours per day.

What’s your favourite book and why?

I have hardly read any books in recent years. However I did really enjoy
reading the trilogy in five parts about the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
I’m remember being very impressed by all the extraordinarily creative and
intelligent comedic dialogue in these books.

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

That’s too hard to answer.

What are your plans for the future.

Once I’m done with my PhD studies, I will probably go for an industry job.
Other than that I am still enjoying doing programming contests just as much as
when I started back in 2007, so I probably won’t leave competing anytime soon.

Here’s our CodeChef Programmer of the month for January 2010. He came in the top 20 in the June Challenge, and has ranked in the top 5 in six CodeChef challenges since then. Lets find out more about our first Programmer of the Month in the new year, Balakrishnan V.

Name : Balakrishnan V

Age : 25

Institute : Johns Hopkins University

User ID : balakrishnan_v

Twitter ID : balakrishnan_v

How/When did you start programming?

I hardly programmed until I joined college(undergraduate). Even in IIT, I had my degree in Electrical Engineering. So I was learning signal processing, information theory etc. instead of programming. But, these did give me a lot of Math background which helped me improve my problem solving skills. However, I used to solve (non-programming) puzzles in my free time. I started real programming after I got introduced to some of these online contests like ProjectEuler , (now) codechef and topcoder.

What do you do when you are not programming?

I normally spend a lot of time browsing internet, trying to learn some new concept(either by looking at other’s code/reading a wikipedia article).

What do you like most about CodeChef?

The quality of the problems are very good. So I enjoy doing them. I especially like the problems which involve concepts that are new to me.  The tie-breakers are  very nice as they are more research oriented and involve creative thinking.

How many hours a day do you program?

On an average, I program for about 5-6 hours.

Which is your favorite book?

I do not read a lot of books. In fact, I have a hard time reading a book or watching a movie(since they require a lot of patience).  However I do read a lot on the internet. I learn mostly from attending classes, browsing the internet (wikipedia, Mathworld, papers), solving problems, discussing with people, asking questions.etc.

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

That is a hard question. There are lots of interesting people around the world.

What are your plans for the future?

I will probably go for an industry job once I graduate. I also have interest in academia. But the chances are low that I will apply for a faculty position at the moment. In any case, my ultimate goal is to make some  contribution to science.

The announcement is long overdue. This month, the CodeChef Programmer of the Month is Ajay Somani who has been a consistent performer on CodeChef since the March 2009 challenge. He even stood 1st in the November 2009 Challenge!

Here is more about Ajay:

Name: Ajay Somani
Age: 20
Organisation: Google
Userid: innocentboy
Twitter ID: ajay_somani

Brief introduction about yourself (under 140 characters): I’m a very ambitious and competitive guy. I’m passionate about computer science and I’d like to do well in whatever I work on. I like travelling to new places and eating great food.

How/When did you start programming?
I started programming when I was 15, during freshman year at college. I just started by doing assignments of a compulsory course at college but later some seniors at our college introduced me to topcoder and I found it fun. In my first year summer holidays I came to know about SPOJ, ACM, UVA and some other online judges and I started practicing more.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
I pretty much end up using my computer anyway, mostly doing reading random stuff on Google reader, facebooking, watching movies and sitcoms. I do enjoy playing lightweight flash games on internet. I also sleep a lot and really like eating good food and hanging out with friends.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
I’ll probably go with prizes too :). Apart from that Codechef is a great platform especially for Indian students to compete and learn from each other. I also like the challenge problem in monthly contests. It’s fun to try out different approaches and see how they perform on the judge test data.

How many hours a day do you program?
It varies greatly depending on the mood and requirement on that particular day. On an average I’d say around 7-8 hours.

What’s your favourite book and why?
I’m not much of a book-reader. I haven’t read any novels yet and I haven’t really liked any of the course books that I’ve read so far. I’d say Introduction to Algorithms (CLRS) and The C++ Programming Language (Bjarne Stroustrup) are some of the better books that I’ve read.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
Person - Leonardo Da Vinci. Dish - Would like to try anything delicious from his time

What are your plans for the future.
I really like my job so I don’t have any plans of changing that in the near future. I’m interested in computer science research and entrepreneurship, so I might go for higher studies later and work on a challenging research problem.

The Programmer of the Month this time is a family man who is also a self taught professional programmer who began programming in BASIC when he was just 8 years old. He is so passionate about it that both work and play combined, he programs for almost 9 hours a day!

Here’s more about our Programmer of the Month for November ‘09, Josh Metzler!

Name: Josh Metzler
Age: 33
Institute/Organisation: I work for ISciences
Userid: jdmetz
Brief introduction about yourself (under 140 characters): I am a self-taught professional programmer. C++ is my language of choice, though I do program in other languages from time to time. I love solving challenging problems (programming or otherwise). I am married with three young children.

How/When did you start programming?
I wrote my first program (with help from my Dad) in BASIC on a PCjr when I was 8 or 9. I dabbled in BASIC from then until high school, when I was given a copy of Turbo Pascal. I didn’t take any CS classes in university, as it didn’t occur to me that CS was a possible career path. After graduating and doing some volunteer work, though, I got a job with some programming as a part of it that has gradually become mostly programming. I also found the UVA online judge and TopCoder, and now CodeChef.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
I spend time with my wife and kids, read books, do work around the house, or go to church. During the summer I play Ultimate Frisbee.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
There’s quite a bit I like about CodeChef. I enjoy the challenging problems, especially in the ten day competition format. With young children it isn’t easy to set aside specific chunks of time for competitions, but I can always find some time here and there to work on a problem. I also enjoy the opportunity to help others learn in the forums, and the variety of languages available to compete with.

How many hours a day do you program?
If I count both work and play, I probably spend 8-9 hours a day programming.

What’s your favourite book and why?
My favourite book is Ender’s Game because I haven’t read any Harry Potter. I’m currently reading a terrifying non-fiction book about climate change
called With Speed and Violence.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
I would have pizza, but I’m not sure on the person. Maybe Richard Feynman or C. S. Lewis.

What are your plans for the future?
I’m fairly happy with my job right now, though I have some interest in working in the finance industry. I am somewhat rooted in Ann Arbor, Michigan,USA, as my oldest child is in elementary school, we own our house and like our neighborhood, and we live near my family who helps with childcare. So, I don’t anticipate any major changes in the near future.