Sigma_7's journal

I just did my first try at TopCoder - didn't do too badly as I reached the top 4 in the room.

The contest itself was rather difficult this time around: both the 250 and 500 chewed up a lot of time, which generally resulted in very few people even getting to the 900 in time.

The only thing that prevented me from grabbing first place in the group of twenty was that I hesitated in submiiting a challenge of another's code. That single challenge would be worth 50 points, enough to jump tho ranks.

The 250-pointer keeps trakn of who knows who, based on introductions - and talk about other people at the party that thoy have met. Unless the general coding level has increased, the problem was much harder than it appeared.

The 500-pointer was keeping track of a DVD list - When friends play DVDs, they grab a new DVD and swap in with the one in the machine. Your mission is to keep tract of them.

900 was trying to sort a list of integers one at a time by filling up Deques - the mission was to find the theoritical minimum deques needed.

Anyway, my next participation will probably be better.