Google Code Jam!

May interest some of you (the operative word being 'may').

- Mithra.

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On your mark, get set... CODE!

Are you energized by cracking conundrums? Are you keen to crank out some code? At Google, we know the rush of encountering a challenge and rising to meet it, transforming a problem into a solution and a solution into code. Since 2003, we've been sharing that experience with a global community of computer scientists through our annual programming competition, Google Code Jam.

We're excited to announce Google Code Jam 2009, powered by Google App Engine. Join the fun and compete in several 2½-hour online rounds, attacking three to four difficult algorithmic problems during each round. You may use your favorite programming languages and tools to code up a solution. When ready, run your solution against our fiendish test data. The algorithm needs to be right, and it needs to be efficient: when N=10000, O(N3) won't cut it!

Think you're up for the challenge? Visit the Google Code Jam site to register, read the rules and — most importantly — begin to practice by trying out the problems from last year's contest, so you'll be in shape when the qualification round starts on September 2. You could be one of the top 25 competitors who will be flown to our Mountain View headquarters to match wits for the $5,000 first prize, and the title of Code Jam champion!

Registration closes on September 3, so sign up now!