Topcoder Open (TCO) is an annual programming competition organized by the TopCoder corporation and aimed at supporting the community of programmers and developers. Unlike the International Collegiate Programming Contest, TCO is an individual championship with a ranking system. The tournament consists of several online rounds and regional events aimed at attracting new members to the TopCoder community.
Originally launched in 2001, this year's Topcoder Open includes six types of competitions such as Algorithm, Development, First2Finish, UI Design, UI Prototype, and Marathon. The winners of online rounds in each track got the opportunity to take part in the final round that was held at the Southfork Ranch in Dallas, Texas.
Topcoder Open Marathon
The competition in this track kicked off on April 14 and consisted of four online rounds. What makes the Topcoder Open Marathon different from other tracks is that its participants solve optimization tasks. In every round, they are given one task, which even its author doesn’t know how to solve.
The task is to come up with a program that would find the most effective solution in a given time period. Every participant’s name and results are then put into a table, which all the participants have access to. Based on this table, the final decision is made.
A total of 12 participants were allowed to go to the USA to take part in the competition’s finals, which lasted for ten hours. ITMO University PhD student Gennady Korotkevich took first prize.
Besides, this year, Gennady Korotkevich and ITMO graduate and ACM ICPC-2015 champion Boris Minaev got to the finals in the Algorithm track, in which Gennady Korotkevich took third place.
The list of all 2018 Topcoder Open Competition’s winners is available here.
