As we approach closer to the ACM ICPC world programming event and everybody is working hard on improving their skills, we thought it would be great for us to have someone who is a professional and doing wonders at CodeChef. Seeing his success in the last few months, he sure is making a name for him self. Yes, we are talking about Rajiv Kumar Aggarwal, the winner of the September Contest. Lets get a sneak peak and see what Rajiv has to say about himself.

Name: Rajiv Kumar Aggarwal
Age: 36
Institute: C.R. State College of Engg., Murthal, Haryana
Company: Teradata India Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad
Userid: rajivka

How/When did you start programming?
I started programming after joining my Engineering College.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
I prefer to solve puzzles, watch cricket or sleep.

What do you like most about CodeChef?
It provides the platform to compete with the world’s best programmers and also to learn many new things.

How many hours a day do you program?
8-9 hours in a working day.

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
Going out with a famous person is not on my ambition list, unless I see any advantage out of it. I would rather go out with my family/friends.

What is the secret to being a good programmer?
Apart from working hard, one should be logically good. Should be able to think about different ways of solving the problem.

What are your plans for the future?
I am already on right track and see myself contributing for a breakthrough of a new product/technology.

Cheers!
Team CodeChef

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 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!

All our Programmers of the Month have been brilliant in their own way. While some performed exceptionally well in our contests, others have done a lot in contributing to the site.

This month, as part of our anniversary special, we are picking the best of our past POTMs and are giving him the title of Programmer of the Year 09-10!

Not only has Stephen Merriman performed consistently well in our monthly challenges, but he has also been a generous contributor to our site. We’d like to show our appreciation for all the tutorials, feedback and the consistent help he provides on our forums. Thanks Stephen!

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

Name: Stephen Merriman
Age: 23
Institute: none, though I can throw in a shameless plug for my work: http://www.cre8d-design.com
Userid: TripleM

Brief introduction about yourself (under 140 characters): Having not discovered programming contests until university, I now love them, and was very excited when I found a new one in CodeChef.

How/When did you start programming?
It’s quite hard to remember, actually. I remember making games in BASIC on an old Acorn Archimedes when I was very young, and then when my sister took some computing papers at university I would watch/read her textbooks. So maybe somewhere from 7 to 10? After competing in the IMO throughout high school, I never discovered programming contests until part way through university where I competed in the ICPC and found Topcoder among others.

What do you do when you’re not programming?
What do you mean not programming? Oh yeah, I do find time to play soccer during the summer, and attend a weekly pub quiz (sadly, there aren’t enough questions about programming for me to be any good).

What do you like most about CodeChef?
The contests, of course; I love entering any contest I can find online. Plus the fact that all those crazy targets at TopCoder don’t compete, so I actually have a chance of winning

How many hours a day do you program?
Seeing as my job involves programming all day, let alone the time I spend solving problems on SPOJ, CodeChef or competitions like the Codejam, it’s probably too large for me to want to think about!

What’s your favourite book and why?
This is going to sound a bit repetitive after Anshuman and Varun, but make that three in a row for Harry Potter; maybe there’s a connection between programming and magic? I’ve always found novels about magic enjoyable. Plus, I have read all 80 something Agatha Christie murder mysteries (the link is more obvious there, problem solving <-> whodunit).

If you could eat dinner with any famous person (past or present), who would it be and what dish would you have?
Boy, that’s a tough one.. the dish would be roast chicken just because it’s my favourite meal. I’d have to think more about this but for now let’s say Fermat, just to see if he really did have a solution to Fermat’s Last Theorem.

What are your plans for the future?
Currently I’m perfectly happy with my job. I get to work from home for my sister, sleep in a bit, and make websites all day. I can’t see this changing any time in the forseeable future, but we’ll see how things go. Other than that – more top 5 codechef finishes, and getting as far as I can through the TCO + Codejam later this year.

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.