Karlstad Programming Contest attracted a record number of teams

On 8 October the fifth edition of the Karlstad Programming Contest took place. The event is organised by Computer Science at Karlstad University. A record number of teams participated and tried to solve difficult programming tasks.

The Karlstad Programming Contest is a leg of the Nordic Collegiate Programming Contest (NCPC), which takes place simultaneously at 19 Nordic universities and university colleges. Teams, consisting of a maximum of three contestants, had to solve eleven programming problems in five hours. They were only allowed a computer, literature and their skills.

- It’s great that so many teams participated this year, says Jonathan Vestin, the contest organiser and PhD student at Karlstad University. Compared to last year, we grew from six to nine teams. Next year we maybe really try to get a team to progress to the next round.

The competition progresses from the Nordic contest to a regional European final, which in turn qualifies teams for the world final. The NWERC, the Northwestern Europe Regional Contest, will take place on 19–20 November and only teams with good results from the NCPC can participate. Teams may only be comprised of students, and according to Jonathan Vestin teams need to train ahead of the NCPC to have any hope of progressing.

- We’re thinking about staging a practice event ahead of next year’s contest. That will give teams time to hone their skills so that they’ll have better chances of succeeding at the NCPC and perhaps to continue to the NWERC.

This year’s contest in Karlstad was sponsored by Sogeti, who also sponsors the winning team, Black Mesa. Black Mesa comprises three Sogeti consultants, Onur Jadermark, Thomas Heder and Mats Persson. The team solved four of the eleven difficult problems in the contest.

- Here at Sogeti we think that the Karlstad Programming Contest is a great initiative for stimulating students’ interest in programming. So we’ve decided to sponsor the event several years in a row, says Åsa Maspers, consultant manager at Sogeti in Karlstad. The contest gives our consultants a great opportunity to develop their problem-solving skills and to see how their skills compare to those of others, both students and fellow consultants.