Contents:
- Programming and IT
- Participants
- Tasks
- Changes this season
- How to prepare
- Benefits for winners
- Opportunities for programming enthusiasts
Programming and IT
Programming and information technologies focus on the development of efficient and reliable software. Depending on the field of focus, specialists work on different tasks; for example, designing, developing, and testing software systems of varying complexity, ranging from automation systems for individual business processes to distributed high-load services. Specialists must be able to program, work with models and architecture of information systems, analyze requirements for software and data, and have a good understanding of information technologies.
Participants
The competition is open to Bachelor’s, Specialist’s, and Master’s students in both in-person and remote programs.
There are no strict requirements: the organizers encourage participants with knowledge of one of the popular programming languages (C/C++, Java/Kotlin, C#, Python, or Go) to join the contest.
Registration for the competition is open until November 11. You just need to fill out the form on the official website and choose the tracks you want to pursue; you can choose as many tracks as you like. To complete the registration process, you’ll have to upload a scanned copy of your student ID or a certificate confirming your student status.
Photo by ITMO University
Tasks
There are two rounds in the track, both held remotely.
Selection round. Participants will have to solve 10 tasks in three hours. The track focuses mostly on applied tasks that are used to test developer skills. Bachelor’s students will have to demonstrate their knowledge of databases, operating systems, telecommunication technologies, and machine learning. Master’s students should be able to work with multithreaded code and data repositories, understand machine learning and data analysis algorithms, and analyze a subject area using UML (Unified Modeling Language; used for visualizing processes and system architecture) at various levels of information system architecture. In addition, students of both levels will be offered a number of programming assignments – both algorithmic and applied.
Final round. It also includes 10 tasks in the same topics, as the selection round, though all of them of greater difficulty – that’s why participants get four hours to solve them. This round also uses proctoring technologies to monitor the procedure.
Changes this season
The topics of the tasks haven’t changed, but the point system will be changed depending on task complexity.
Photo by ITMO University
How to prepare
Look through previous years’ tasks and recommended reading. General task descriptions, requirements, and demos of tasks for bot selection and final rounds are available on the contest’s website – they should be your first step. Tasks for Bachelor’s and Master’s students are posted separately.
Watch the contest’s webinars. There, experts explain the tasks of last year’s selection and final rounds and highlight the important parts.
Practice solving competitive programming tasks on the Codeforces platform. This way, you will learn about the most common algorithms and data structures in practice.
Benefits for winners
All medalists, winners, and diploma holders of the contest will get the following:
- A diploma and an opportunity to enroll into Russia’s best universities tuition-free and without exams;
- An opportunity to intern at leading Russian companies;
- Access to the I Am a Professional career portal with job and internship postings, career consultations, and all kinds of online events from partner companies.
Apart from that, medalists also get monetary prizes: bronze medalists – 100,000-150,000 rubles; silver – 150,000-200,000 rubles; and gold – 200,000-300,000 rubles.
Photo by ITMO University
Opportunities for programming enthusiasts
ITMO implements over 30 Master’s programs, both focused on IT (AI and ML, software development for highload systems, speech, mobile, and web technologies, data analytics) and interdisciplinary ones, such as bioinformatics, team or product management, urban studies, and gamedev.
Corporate program Software Engineering with Gazprom Neft. Students in the program will study modern technologies and programming languages and will choose one of the specializations (industrial programming technologies, programming language theory, machine learning, or algorithmic bioinformatics) to become middle and senior developers.
Corporate program Artificial Intelligence with Napoleon IT. Students will learn to create AI products and technologies and polish their skills by working on products from X5 Group, Ozon Bank, MTS, Sber AI, and other major Russian companies. Moreover, students will create their individual learning tracks and master one or several roles – an ML engineer, a data engineer, an AI product developer, and a data analyst.
Corporate program Highload Systems with Yandex. Students will immerse themselves in software engineering and learn to design and implement complex software systems – highload, distributed, and heterogeneous. The speed of mastering the program depends on the students’ training level: Bachelor’s degree graduates will need two years, while experienced developers will need one.
Corporate program IT Team Lead with Samolet Group. Students will equally master both the technical and business sides of IT development: they will understand the design of information systems, machine learning, AI and data analytics, the launch and management of IT products, as well as managing startup economics and remote teams.
You can find the full list of ITMO’s IT Master’s programs and all the details here.
